The Missing Piece
by The Wolf Who Walks Alone
Summary: POST FANG! FAX! Ok, I hated the ending of FANG, so before James Patterson does anything else, I have to fix the cliffy that he left us to deal with. Much better than it sounds and gets better and better with each chapter! FAX! Needs Reviews! FAX!
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first fic in the Maximum Ride category, so at least give me a chance before you leave without reviewing!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Max Ride, I wouldn't be here, Fang would have NEVER left and Dylan would only be an image in a crazy person's nightmares. **

Max P.O.V.

Fang. He's all that I can think about. Every time I close my eyes, his image burns behind my eyelids. Even when I manage to doze off out of pure exhaustion, he comes back and haunts my dreams.

His black wings glint purple in the whitish lighting of my dreams and his obsidian eyes freeze my dream-self in place. His shaggy black hair hangs just over the tips of his eyelashes. His clothes are their usual; all black and he says only three words before he flies off,

"Don't follow me."

I wake up crying and screaming for him to come back. Angel and Nudge run into the room, but they already know what I'm so shaken up over. They try to comfort me, but we all know it's no use. Iggy and Gazzy just stand by my bedside and look at their broken leader. That's what I've become. Broken. After all of the horrors that Itex and the School put me through, after all of the terrible obstacles I've faced, it takes loosing the only one that I've ever truly loved more than a friend to break me.

I've become a ghost of my old self, always fading. I haven't left my room since the day he left, which was two weeks ago. Nudge forced me to drink at least a little water, but I can't hold any food. I'm too numb with grief. The only thing that occupies my thoughts or my dreams is Fang.

Fang and all of the memories we've shared. There are too many memories to count and I re-live every last one as they forever linger in my brain.

Fang and I sparring in the front yard of our cabin when Jeb was still here.

Me kissing Fang on the beach.

Fang kissing me in the cave and me flying away.

Me totally and completely falling for him on the submarine.

Fang laying on the cold, metal hospital bed and me confessing my love for him.

Me walking down the aisle with Fang at Akilla and Total's wedding.

The moment when I realized that Fang was never coming home.

He's just gone.

I didn't even get to tell him goodbye.

FANG!

_Fang…_

Normal P.O.V.

"She's getting worse, you know." said Nudge quietly. Nobody looked up. The secret flock meeting wasn't going as well as she had hoped.

"So what do you want us to do." said Iggy flatly. "We don't know where Fang is, and Max is so weak, she can barely stand up."

"Yeah, and Fang told her not to look for him." said Gazzy tiredly.

"Told her not to look for him…" murmured Angel.

"What's that, Ange?" said Iggy.

"Told her… told her!" said Angel excitedly. When Angel saw the other flock members' puzzled expressions, she sighed and began to explain her revelation, and her plan.

**Wouldn't it be nice if I stopped here, I'm not that nice, so here's the rest of the chapter.**

"Fang told _her_ not to look for him. He never told us that we couldn't. Besides, when he hears on how Max is coping, he has to come back!" said Angel with such relish, that the rest of the flock wanted to fly out the window and scour the country for the dark, silent boy that everyone missed.

The rest of the flock had already slapped high fives with Angel for her brilliant idea when Iggy interrupted the happy moment.

"Sorry to be all rain-on-your-parade, but what are we going to do with Max while we're gone. She's in no condition to come flying around the country with us, and I don't want to leave her behind with that 'soul mate gone wrong' Dylan. Who knows what he'll do!" said Iggy.

The other flock members' smiles slowly faded. Angel scowled, then began smiling again.

"Sure, she can't come with us, but Dr. Martinez and Ella can take care of her! None of us even have to stay behind!" said Angel.

The other flock members grinned mischievously. Tomorrow, the plan would begin to take action. The flock would find Fang, drag his butt all the way over here if necessary, Max would get better, and the whole flock would be whole again. Chained together, if necessary. That is, if Max didn't die first, which would probably be in a few short weeks if she kept it up like this.

**Was it good? This is the first fic I've written in a long time, so tell me how I did. Tell me what to improve! Any reviews are welcome! Also, tell me any pairing suggestions other than Fax that you guys want, and I'll try to put them in!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, sorry if my updates are a little slow in these next couple of weeks. I'm starting school again… Why? (sigh) anyways, all reviews and ideas for the plot are welcome.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride! Everybody knows that!**

"Goodnight Max, are you sure that you don't want any food? I mean, Iggy will whip up anything you want to eat! He can make toast, or ham sandwiches, or egg-salad sandwiches, or chicken salad sandwiches, I really prefer his tuna sandwiches over the egg salad ones, because I tried to tell him…" started Nudge before Iggy put his hand over her mouth.

"I don't think that she's hungry. Goodnight Max." said Iggy as he set something on the dresser facing the bed. Iggy then quickly shut the door.

Max didn't even register Iggy's suspicious behavior as she stared at the swirling ceiling fan above her.

Fang.

At the old house when Jeb still took care of them, she woke Fang up almost every day. Once, she went to wake Fang up, and he suddenly opened his eyes and yelled. Max yelped out of surprise and stood up abruptly.

She had forgotten that she was standing on a bed and the last thing she had remembered was getting whacked really hard in the back of the head. She had been hit by the ceiling fan. Max fell backwards off the bed and slipped into unconsciousness.

When she woke up, she saw Fang holding her and looking at her with a worried and maybe fearful expression. Max smiled and Fang looked relieved. Then Max socked him in the eye. Fang fell backwards, clutching his eye.

"What was that for?" Fang growled.

"That, that was for scaring me, stupid!" said Max as she felt a lump on the back of her head.

Fang had a black eye for more than a week and never told anyone how he got it.

Bad Max! Don't think about…

Why was this so hard! Oh, because Fang was always there for her as long as she could remember. He'd always been there for her and now, she was almost guaranteed not to ever see him again!

_Oh, Fang…_was the last anguished thing that Max thought before she faded into a restless sleep.

_Running…The only sound that could match the pattering of her sprinting feet was the erratic beating of her heart._

_They were after her._

_The baying of bloodhounds could be heard behind her. The growling and panting of the beasts were coming ever closer._

_Then she heard the blood curdling growl of an Eraser behind her._

_Faster! I have to go faster! _

_Max tried to run faster, and only managed to muster up a little more speed. Her wings were strangely numb, all she needed was the upwind a breeze. The cliff was coming up, that would provide a wind current strong enough to lift her dead feeling wings enough to where she could soar to safety._

_Almost… there…_

_More skin crawling growls. Erasers. Lots of Erasers. And the dogs were gaining on her._

_She broke through the last of the bushes to find… an impossibly tall wall. Erasers came from her right and left, as well as behind her. She was trapped._

_With her back to the wall, she prepared to fight her way out of this situation, no matter how impossible it seemed._

_Now all of the Erasers and dogs were visible. She was completely surrounded. A group of Erasers sneered at her and approached. She swiped a high kick at the side of an eraser's neck that should have broken it, but her leg passed harmlessly through it, as if an illusion. Before she could ponder on that, an Eraser swited it's curved claws at her, taking her off guard and raking her chee._

_How is this possible?_

_Another Eraser slugged her in the stomach. A fine mist of blood spurted out of her mouth. An Eraser cackled with unholy glee as it kicked her it the chest, and she dropped to the ground. _

_More Erasers dealt her a countless amount of merciless blows as she grew weaker and closer to darkness with each hit. She tried to fight back as best as she could, but the kicks and punches would only pass harmlessly through the grotesque bodies of the fully morphed Erasers. As she was on the verge of passing out, the Erasers smirked as they took a few steps back._

_What the…?_

_Then she saw why. A single Eraser stepped forward with a semi-automatic handgun in it's clawed clutches. The Eraser grinned with sick humor as it aimed the gun and turned the safety off._

_So this is the end…_

_Then darkness covered the light. She was still conscious, she knew that because she still felt the gut wrenching pain of the many wounds that had been inflicted on her. She struggled, but managed to open her eyes to a squint._

_A pair of black wings blocked her view of her executioner._

_Black wings? BLACK WINGS!_

_FANG!_

_Fang was clad in his usual all black attire, and he had his back to her. She heard the Eraser snarl at Fang._

"_You weren't supposed to come back!" the Eraser hissed._

"_Well, I'm here." said Fang in his deep voice that Max missed so much._

"_You came to take her place, how touching!" growled the Eraser. Fang halfway turned around to look at Max. Instead of the emotionless mask that usually shrouded his face, Max could see love and sadness. A cold hand gripped her insides as she realized what was happening._

"_Fang, no!" screamed Max. But it was to late. The gun fired, and Fang staggered back, then landed next to Max. _

_Max managed to drag herself over to Fang's side, but not without allowing tears to flow freely down her bloodied face._

_The bullet had passed through his stomach, so it was only a matter of a minute before life faded from him._

"_Fang…" sobbed Max._

"_Max…" whispered Fang hoarsely. He wiped a tear away from her cheek with his hand._

"_Why? Why couldn't you just let me die?" cried Max. "I can't live without you!"_

"_Because I could never live with myself if I let you die." gasped Fang as he coughed making a drop of blood drip from his mouth._

"_Please Fang! I want you to live I love you! Please don't leave me!" choked Max as she continued to sob._

"_You won't be alone. Take care of the flock. I'll always be alive in there." whispered Fang as he touched her heart._

"_But I can't do this with a memory!" said Max as she kissed Fang with a passion that she had been saving inside her for all of the days in her mournful solitude._

"_I love you Max…" said Fang quietly. His body shuttered and he never moved again. His unseeing, obsidian eyes never closed._

_His silky black hair would never whip through the breeze again. His lips would never taste the fresh air up high in the sky again. His pitch black wings would never fly again._

_Max sobbed like she had never sobbed before. She felt empty, like if her very soul had been ripped from her body._

_The Erasers, which Max had forgotten about until now, made a low growl. Max managed to bring her eyes up for a moment._

"_What do you want! What more could you possibly take away from me? Go ahead! Kill me! I want to be with him!" Max shrieked at the Erasers._

"_That isn't my decision. You have a choice, Maximum. Be sure that it is the right one." snarled the Eraser as it tossed something to her feet. The Erasers then disappeared in a dark mist._

_Max looked at her feet to find a gun._

'_You have a choice Maximum. Be sure that it is the right one.' The Eraser's gravely voice rang in her mind._

_Max shakily lifted the gun to her temple, her body wracking with sobs. She knew that she wanted to pull the trigger. There was nothing in this world for her now. Fang was gone and she could now never have a family with him._

_The rest of the flock then appeared in front of her. Nudge saw the gun, and tried to take it away from Max, but was restrained by some sort of invisible barrier. Gazzy looked all out stunned and Angel appeared to be screaming and crying something, but Max couldn't hear her._

_Max now knew what the Eraser meant by a choice. She could choose to live with the rest of the flock in a horrible depression, or she could die and escape it all, leaving the flock grieving for all eternity, and the world would end anyways._

_Max's shaky hand dropped the gun and she cried into Fang's chest, begging for him to return. She shouldn't have to choose. Max managed to scream one word,_

"_FANG!"_

The dream was shattered leaving Max screaming and sobbing Fang's name, begging him to return.

The flock ran to the room, but could do little.

"Max. Max! It was just a dream. You're ok now." said Nudge as she gently put her arm around Max.

"FANG! Please come back! Don't go! Don't leave me here alone!" screamed Max. Gazzy looked at Nudge worriedly.

"Max, we're here. You're not alone." said Nudge softly. Max continued to sob. Angel, who was reading Max's thoughts and emotions gasped then began sobbing alongside Max.

Nudge gently eased Max back to a calmer state, where she only muttered instead of screaming.

"Don't go Fang…" croaked Max.

The Flock looked at one another, except for Iggy, who only looked concerned.

"That's all we can do." said Nudge softly as she reached over to the dresser and took off the device that she had put on earlier. The flock silently left the room.

"Is that enough proof?" asked Gazzy.

"It should be. Hey Angel, what did you see in Max's thoughts?" asked Iggy.

Angel wiped a tear away from her cheek as she told the flock about Max's dream.

The Flock was silent for a moment.

"This is definitely the worst night yet. She won't take this much longer. You saw that in the dream. We have to leave now! We'll go pack, get changed, leave, and maybe eat breakfast, I don't know if we'll have time because…" Iggy cut Nudge off.

"Pack your stuff. We're leaving tonight." said Iggy. The Flock left to pack without hesitation. They had to save their leader from herself.

**Ok, here's the new chapter. I thank those of you who reviewed in the last chapter with everything I've got. **

**I've had a really bad week, new school, a horribly confusing computer class, I don't have lunch with ANY of my friends, so I will eat alone until next semester and to top it off, I only had two reviews. :'(**

**PLEASE REVIEW! Make my bad week better! One review could make me surviving another day worthwhile! I really, really want five reviews for this chapter! I'll probably update anyways, but PLEASE REVIEW!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yay! I got 5 reviews! Thank you so much! I love all of you who reviewed! As a present, I will start off in Fang's POV!**

**Disclaimer: Maximum Ride is not mine… (sigh)**

Fang POV

Yeah, I left. Do I regret it?

Every day.

Do I miss Max and the Flock?

Well, I really miss Iggy's cooking… just kidding. Not really about the cooking thing though. A guy seriously misses good, delicious hot food after eating stuff from dumpsters and stolen food from campfires after two weeks.

I really miss the flock. All of them. I've even come to miss Gazzy's… never mind. But I really, really miss Max. It tears me up inside every second of every day. **(A/N: that's 'tear'! rhymes with bear! Not 'tear' that rhymes with deer!)**

_She's really gone._

I'm not gonna get all emotional on you. Yeah, I see you, the one who is all like 'Since when is Fang such an emotional, sappy mutant bird kid?' I'm just saying that because it's true. I really miss her and I miss everything about her, even the really annoying things.

I miss her breathing next to mine. I miss our one on one conversations about things that we couldn't talk about in front of the rest of the flock. I miss her taking control of the Flock and leading us to victory. I miss the smell of her hair and the warmth of her breath.

Like I said, I miss everything about her.

It's like I forgot my soul back with Max. And yes, I, despite the emotionless expression I always wear, have a soul. And Max has it. I wouldn't have it any other way. I just wish that I could see her one last…

_No, don't even start!_

Right! I left to protect her from any harm that I'd bring her. Besides, the Flock needs a leader. Not a teenage girl who's judgment is marred by love.

I'm perfectly happy with Max and I being together and I really wish that we could tell the rest of the Flock to just deal with it.

But Angel had that psychic vision or whatever of me dying, which I did, but I still can't take that chance of Max getting hurt because I was selfish and wanted to stay with her, no matter what the consequences.

I had to leave. I could never live with myself if I let Max get hurt. I just can't take that chance.

You don't know how much I want to just turn around and go back to life with her and the rest of the Flock. The damage is already done though. She probably hates my sorry guts by now and likes Dylan, the way the whitecoats wanted it.

I probably have lost my place in the Flock now and Dylan has wedged his way in to my old position. Even if I went back, The whole 'I put Max in danger' issue just returns and I'd just have to leave again and I don't think I could handle going through that again.

I've been through more pain than you can imagine. After the School, Itex, and the countless battles, I've been through a ton of pain. But none of it is like the pain of letting her slip through my fingers.

The least I can do is help her out a little by freeing mutants from straggling Schools and Itex branches to fight with her in the final war.

Well, I've arrived at a small branch of Itex in Maryland. Well, it's now or never. I'm gonna trash this place.

Normal POV

In about ten minutes after the flock meeting, the Iggy, Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge had their light backpacks stocked with snacks, blankets, extra clothes, a first aid kit, and Max's credit card. Iggy plugged the device that was previously placed on Max's dresser to the computer and downloaded the contents on a DVD. Iggy slipped the DVD in a small plastic case and met the others on the front porch.

When Dr. Martinez woke up, she was in for a surprise. Nudge had left a note on the coffee pot, which guaranteed that Dr. Martinez would see it.

The Flock took a running start, and one by one, took off into the night.

In the morning of the next day, Dr. Martinez woke up, slipped on her slippers and bathrobe and walked to the kitchen for her Saturday cup of morning coffee.

On her way to the kitchen, she stopped dead in her tracks. Something wasn't right. It was _quiet_. On a Saturday morning? Where were those bird kids?

Probably out for a brisk morning flight. It was a stunning morning. Ok.

Dr. Martinez walked over to the coffee pot to find a note taped to the top. It said,

_Deer Ms. Martinez,_

_As you mite have notised, Max is nawt doing verry well. She misses Fang two much, so we are going too find him. We don't now when we will get back, so please take care of Max while we R gone._

_P.S. Don't let Dylan get near Max. He will only mak it wors._

_Love, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel and Iggy._

Dr. Martinez could definitely tell that Nudge had written the note be the girlish handwriting and the poor spelling. Well, Nudge did learn all that she did from the internet. The whole Flock did.

Dr. Martinez sighed. She could take a few days off of work, but she had to return. The back-up vet could only handle so much. **(A/N: For those of you who've forgotten, Dr. Martinez is a veterinarian. Not a doctor for humans.)**

Maybe Ella could miss a few days of school to take care of Max?

Neither of them, however, could always be there to make sure that Dylan keeps his distance. There is something not quite right about him… Dr. Martinez couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was definitely wrong with that mutant bird kid. Call it a mother's instinct.

She'd watch Max as long as she could, but she couldn't always be there.

_Oh, I wish that they will come back soon!_ Thought Dr. Martinez worriedly.

**Ok, I know! Short chapter! But I will update as soon as I can! At LEAST once more this weekend! If I get 5 reviews, I will add some extra drama and funny flock humor in this! And maybe… A DYLAN POV! Only if I get more than 5 reviews… then you can see what Dylan is REALLY thinking!**

**Hit the lonely button already!**

**It doesn't have to be long!**

**I accept 1 word reviews!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Yay! I got six reviews! I really appreciate those of you who've taken the time to review! I'm sooo happeeee! Reviews, favorite author, favorite story…. REVIEWS! I love them all…especially reviews!****J **

**Disclaimer: If I owned Max Ride, the flock wouldn't be in this mess!**

**The Dylan POV will be in this chapter, I just have to start off with Max first. **

Max POV

My eyes flash open.

_Fang, don't go!_

I shot up to find tears running a marathon down my cheeks. That same, aweful, Eraser-killing-Fang dream keeps coming back like bad sushi. The dream doesn't get any less angst filled with each appearance.

'_You have a choice, Maximum.' _said the Eraser. Max was terrified of the answer. She knew what she wanted to choose every time, and she knew what she had to choose.

Just then, a knock pierces through Max's musings. Then the door creaks open letting light from the hallway spill into the darkness in her room.

Max squints her eyes enough to see Dylan's blond head poking in. Max prepared herself for battle, mentally and physically.

Dylan POV

I know what I have to do. I know because it feels right, and because Max and Angel aren't the only ones with voices in their heads.

I've bided my time long enough, the Flock has left to find Fang, just like my Voice said it would.

is downstairs making lunch and Ella is blasting music in her room, so Max is all mine, for the time being.

I know Max is fading; she's really dying over the loss of Fang. I really don't know why she'd miss _him_. I mean, Max has been a major spear in the side of Itex and the School! They've tried to kill, trap, and convince her in any way that they could think of. But in actuality, all it took to defeat Max the Indestructable was the loss of her so called _soul mate_.

We'll see about that.

I've reached her door. I don't know if she's awake or asleep because either way, ever since _he _left, the lights have remained extinguished.

Muffled weeping and mutterings tell me that she's awake. Or at least I think. I lightly knock.

All the noises in the room are instantly silenced. I slowly open the door and let sunlight pierce the dank darkness of Max's room.

"Max?" I whispered. Yeah, I know. Real original.

"Go. Away." snarled a wobbly voice. I smirked. I mean, I know Max is emotionally unstable, but that last so-called- ferocious remark was pitiful.

"Make me. Anyways, Max. Why don't you and I go for a short flight? I know you're not feeling the best, but a good flight might make you feel a little better. Don't you want to stretch your wings?" I asked. What she said next didn't surprise me, but still…

"I'd rather chew my own arm off than go with _you_! Beat it!" Max tried to sound fierce, but failed miserably. Emphasis on the 'miserably' part.

"Don't you want to see at least a little sunlight? Make this day worth living!" I said.

"What part of 'beat it' do you not understand? _He_ made my day worth living! _He_ was my sunlight! Now he's gone and left me in the dark!" Max yelled, then ended up crying. Her voice cracked in multiple places in that sentence.

"_Fang_ would not want you to end up dying alone in the dark! Max, you're pushing me away! You're pushing everyone away! Let me in! I'm trying to help!" I said with such emphasis, I almost believed it. With each sentence, I took one step closer until I was right next to her.

Max turned her head to look at me and with the light spilling in from the doorway, I could see her. Her eyes were sunken and bloodshot. She had bags under her eyes and most of the previous muscle on her arms had deteriorated leaving skin clinging to the bone. Her hair was tangled and dirty. Salt left behing from tears covered her cheeks from crying all the time. Her eyes had a faraway look, not focused. Like she wasn't really looking at you.

Her eyes were almost like Iggy's. Iggy's eyes.

Oh, crap!

"Max," I said trying not to let the instability leak into my voice. "Can you see?"

Max sniffled.

"Not really. It's all dark. So dark…" she murmered.

"That's it." I said. I picked her up like a sack of potatoes and put her over my shoulder.

"LET ME GO!" screamed Max as she unsuccessfully tried to escape. She beat my back with her fists, but it didn't hurt. Her punches would have normally hurt and she normally could have easily escaped, but her detererating health prevented that.

I grabbed a pair of sunglasses on his way out the front door. I couldn't help but notice that Max weighed a whole lot less than she should. Normally, she weighed a little less than 100 pounds because her bones were hollow and she didn't ever really have any fat on her.

Now, she probably weighed less than 75 pounds. I finally put Max down on the grass. Max had her eyes shut.

"Here, put these on." I said. Max muttered something unintelligible. "Now, are you gonna fly?" I asked.

Max stood still for a moment.

"Wait a second, where is the flock?" Max asked with a hint of panic in her voice.

"They… had to go and get something. They'll be back soon." I said. Score one for me! I didn't even have to lie!

"Oh. Ok." Max said shortly as she lustfully eyed the clear blue sky.

"You know, we have wings. We _can_ fly." I said.

"We, will do nothing. _I _on the other hand will stretch my wings." said Max. No _way_ was she getting off this easy.

"We'll see about that." I said. Max said nothing but slowly unfurled her wings as if stretching them out. Quiet little pops and the ruffling from her feathers were the only noises. With her wings being held up against her back for so long, I'm surprised that her wing joints didn't pop louder.

Max quietly sighed with contentment as the sunlight reached her beautiful wings. I did the same.

Just then, the back door opened up and stuck her head outside.

"Lunch is ready! And we have a visitor!" Dr. Martinez said.

"Who is it?" Max yelled.

"Oh Max, you know her. It's Dr. Brigid Dwyer."** (A/N: I really don't know how to spell Birgid's last name, and I don't care!) **

I saw Max's face contort into a scowl. This was going to get interesting.

Max POV

Brigid. What is she doing here? I tromped over to the kitchen, because I was a little hungry. From the kitchen, I could also see the living room, where Brigid and her long, blond hair were lounging on the sofa.

"Max, what a pleasant surprise!" said Brigid with a hint of amusement.

"Yeah, great to see you too!" I said with fake enthusiasm.

"Max, why don't you come and sit down with us?" Mom said. What she really meant was _Bring your sandwhich and come greet our guest._

I silently hissed at my bad luck and walked over into the living room. Dylan was already there… in the loveseat… which was the only seat left. That only gave me one choice… I'm standing up.

"Max, aren't you gonna sit down?" asked Dylan.

"Nope, I'm good where I am." I said cooly trying not to register the disappointment. on Dylan's face.

_Not in this lifetime! Sorry, bud._ I thought.

"Ok then. Now, Brigid. It's nice to see you, but what are you doing around here?" Mom asked.

"I was in the neighborhood and decided to drop by and say hi to my favorite flying bird kids." Brigid said as she flipped her buttery blond hair.

_More like your favorite bird kid, and he's long gone! _I thought bitterly.

"Well, it is a pleasant surprise." Mom said.

Dylan didn't say anything and probably won't. He looked out of place and he should, because he doesn't belong here.

"So, where's Fang?" asked Brigid.

Of course. Not "Where's the rest of the Flock?" Her little scientific partner is gone. Gone. Fang's gone.

_FANG!_

Tears trailed down my cheeks against my will.

I abruptly stood up and hurried out of the room. I felt Mom's eyes looking sadly at my retreating figure.

"Max, wait!" said Dylan. What did _he_ want! I stooped for a second. I don't really know why I stopped. I wasn't really thinking clearly as more and more tears raced down my face.

"Max, maybe it's time to move on. Forget about Fang. Look at what he's done to you! He isn't right for you. What's best for you and the Flock is to just leave him in the past where he belongs." said Dylan firmly.

I'm steeming with anger. I could pretty much feel the steam shooting out of my ears, like in a cartoon.

"What _he's_ done to me!" I shrieked. "I's your freaking fault that he left! If you never came here, he would have never left because Itex would have never singled him out! He left so I wouldn't get hurt! He knew that I would never willingly let him leave, so he did it in secret! He loved me so much, he gave me up to protect me!"

Dylan said nothing, but was red in the face. I had really ticked him off. I kept going, since I was on a roll.

"You were freaking created to replace him! You could NEVER replace Fang no matter how hard you tried! I wish you had never been created!" I said.

I know, that was hugely mean, even for me, but I really meant everything I said and I didn't even feel guilty when he stormed out of the house and flew off. His flying still sucked.

I was sobbing now. Stuid teenage, bird-kid-crazy-in-love-with a boy who's who knows where doing who knows what feelings. I was like a cauldron of emotions bubbling whatever emotion over the side.

I ran up the stairs but could still faintly hear the conversation between Brigid and my Mom.

Ahhh! I wish Brigid had never come!

"Well, I'm guessing that it's a bad time." said Brigid. My mom sighed.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is. Could you stop by another day?" said my mom.

"Of course. I have a few important things to attend to anyways. Well, I'll see you later!" called Brigid as I heard her leave. The door closed shut behind her.

I ran to a room and slammed the door shut. I realized that it wasn't my rom that I was in, though. It was Fang's.

I smelled the smell that I missed so much as my sides wracked with silent sobs. I decided not to leave. I felt closer to him in here. I layed down on his bed, still crying, of course, and smelled in his smell.

Oh, Fang! I wish he'd never gone!

Fang…

**I made the chapter extra long to make up for the late update! Again, I really love the reviews! I really would like your opinion on how I'm doing. I tried letting my 11 year old sister read it, but… well… let's just say that didn't turn out so well. **

**I know that you guys really appreciate Maximum Ride like I do, so please, please tell me what you think! I'll publish the next chapter after 5 reviews! I'll dedicate the next chapter to the next five reviewers! I'll even throw in another Fang POV and who knows, maybe another Dylan POV?**


	5. Feathers, Traitors, and the Flock

**Hi! I got my first five reviewers and they are….**

**FightingDestiny123**

**5253Racer**

**Ella**

**Angel of Hope73**

**ReErEe2015**

**Thank all of you who added me to your favorite story/favorite author lists and, of course, those of you who reviewed! This chapter is dedicated to the previously mentioned reviewers! You guys rock!**

**As a celebration of all of the reviews, I've never had 20 reviews for four chapters before, Not only will I throw in some anti-Brigid, but I'll even have a small, sweet moment between Max and her mom! ****J**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride already!**

Max POV

I sat on Fang's bed dejectedly. Maybe he didn't really want me after all… As I curled up under the covers, I felt a small object under the duvet. I reached for it and pulled it out to get a better look.

I know, I know. Curiosity killed the bird-kid. Whatever. It was light, soft, slender, and pure black. It was one of Fang's feathers.

If you didn't catch this before, Fang's feathers aren't just a coal black. They have a luminescent shine to them, so they glisten purple in the sunlight.

I clutched the feather to my chest. It was the only real piece of him I had left. More tears streamed down my cheeks as more memories of Fang and me bombarded my mind. I eventually fell into a restless sleep.

Normal POV

_Where is Max? _thought Dr. Martinez as she once again went through the current Flock's rooms. She had even looked in Ella's room. No Max.

_Oh, I hope she hasn't tried to fly off! She's too weak to get anywhere! She could fall!_

Then a thought crossed Dr. Martinez's mind. She slowly opened the door that once belonged to a certain tall, dark and nearly silent Flock member. Sure enough, Max was sprawled out under the covers, asleep.

Dr. Martinez crept closer to Max. She then saw that Max was holding on to something. With the touch of an experienced surgeon, she pried the object out of Max's grasp.

It was on of Fang's feathers.

Dr. Martinez sighed.

_Who knew that an almost silent human- Avian hybrid could cause so much heartache?_

No matter. Dr. Martinez had a special plan for this feather.

Meanwhile…

A figure sat in an expensive car with binoculars, watching a flying person glide off into the horizon to the West.

"Subject 118 is heading back to headquarters. It seems that Maximum Ride has passed yet another test." said the figure, who appeared to be pleased. The figure, who was talking on a cell phone listened to the voice on the other side.

"Yes. Max is able to successfully chose a suitable mate and remain faithful to him, even in the most tempting of circumstances. However, her loyalty may be her undoing. Brigid, keep an eye on her. Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid." said the voice on the other line. The phone was then abruptly hung up.

_That's gonna be hard. Max ALWAYS does something stupid! _Birgid thought as she put the binoculars away and drove to the nearest hotel. She was going to have an extended stay, and pay many 'unexpected' visits to the Martinez residence.

After all, The school didn't want their most successful recombinant DNA experiments to die before their expiration dates. Besides, the Flock's expiration dates were close. Or at least Max's, Fang's, and Iggy's were.

After about an hour of Dr. Martinez's meticulous work, she was done. Dr. Martinez carefully carried her finished project over to Max. Luckily Max was awake. On the not so good side, she was staring lifelessly at a picture of herself and Fang that was taken not a month before.

"Max?" said Dr. Martinez. Max didn't respond.

"Remember that feather you had earlier?" Max didn't say or do anything, but a lone tear dripped off her nose.

"Well, I borrowed it and made it into something for you." said Dr. Martinez as she held out what she had made.

That's when Max blinked fast and finally looked at it. It was a necklace, with the feather on in. The feather was strung neatly on a strip of dark and tough black leather. Not unlike Fang himself. Also strung on the necklace were small pieces of obsidian from a real volcano. The edges were a little sharp, but beautiful, like Fang. In fact, everything on the necklace represented Fang.

Dr. Martinez carefully tied the necklace around Max's neck.

"It's very beautiful. Now Fang will always be close to my heart; just where he belongs and always will be." said Max in a raspy whisper from crying so much.

Then, Max hugged her mom fiercely.

"Thank you so much. This means so much to me." said Max softly.

Max then released her mom from the embrace and sat on the bed, absentmindedly stroking the feather on her necklace.

Dr. Martinez left the room, closed the door, and brushed a few tears away herself. She had seen few married adults who showed as much loyalty and love to their partner as Max did with Fang. Dr. Martinez knew from the few times that she had seen Fang that he loved her as much as she loved him, but wouldn't he know that she would be heartbroken after he was gone?

Dr. Martinez hated to see one of her daughters in so much pain. This was an injury that no amount of medical schooling would ever fix. The Flock had better come back soon. Dr. Martinez prayed that Fang would listen to them.

Somewhere in North America…

So, how are we supposed to find Fang anyways? He could be like, anywhere! He could be in Maine, or Iowa, or California, or New York, or Florida, or…" Gazzy covered Nudge's mouth. The Flock was heading East, and, as the leader, Iggy's job was to decide all of the little details like how to find Fang. Iggy wasn't telling anyone, but he was sooo gonna kick Fang's butt when they found him.

_You don't want to do that._ said Angel in an eerie tone inside Iggy's head. Iggy shivered. Jeez! He hated it when Angel did that. Ever since she tried to take Max's spot as leader, Iggy had thought that Angel had gone a little… creepy.

Leader of the Flock was a seniority thing. First Max would be leader, but she's sick so she can't lead, then Fang, who was the whole cause of this mess, then him.

Sorry, chica, but Angel was last in line for the throne.

_That is so not fair! Why would Gazzy or Nudge be leader before me? And sorry Iggy, but You're blind. Max and Fang are as blind as you are when they're near each other. That's why I should lead!_ Angel said in Iggy's head. Now Iggy was ticked.

_I'm still older than you, Angel! Even though I am blind, I still can protect the Flock! And, let's not forget that kicking Max out of the Flock went sooo well last time! Jeb almost died because your mind controlling powers weren't specific enough! Face it! Max was made to be the leader with Fang at her side! _started Iggy. Angel tried to interrupt, but Iggy continued his tirade.

_Oh! I almost forgot! You freaking foretold Fang's death! You WANTED him to go! You said that it would make the Flock stronger! But it did the opposite! Max is dying, Angel, dying because Fang left! The flock will eventually fall apart if Max doesn't keep it together and we both know that! So less complaining / taking over the Flock crap and let's find Fang! _said Iggy.

Angel didn't say anything. She didn't even look over at Iggy.

"So Iggy, really. How are we gonna find Fang?" asked Gazzy.

"Easy. You now how this was Itex's old computer?" said Iggy.

"Yeah?" said Gazzy, his tone urging for Iggy to continue.

"Well, we know that one of us, as in me, you and Fang were chipped back at the school, like Max. You know, like when the Flock split and all those Flyboys came after us?" said Iggy.

"Yeah, I remember." said Gazzy cheerlessly. Gazzy hated it when the Flock split up.

"Anyways, I asked Dr. Martinez to get an X-ray of me to check for a chip. I didn't have one." said Iggy.

"You got an X-Ray?" asked Gazzy in wonder.

"Yep. It smelled exactly like the School. You got one too." said Iggy

"I what?" shrieked Gazzy.

"You heard me. I kinda put a little sleep medicine in your dinner so we could get X-rayed. Don't worry, you didn't have a chip either. So it had to be Fang with the chip." said Iggy.

Gazzy just stared at Iggy with his mouth open.

"You…you drugged my food?" said Gazzy. "I can't believe it… I… I'm never eating your food again!" said Gazzy.

Sure. As soon as the Flock would land, Gazzy would eat anything that Iggy would cook.

"Anyways, Nudge managed to hack into the chip's tracking signal and we found out that we can track Fang by the chip implanted in his arm." Iggy said. "We found out that Fang was hanging out in New York."

"Fang really did kinda like it there. He's probably gonna like, raid the Institute or something." said Nudge.

"Knowing Fang…I don't really know what he's up to, but I'm gonna tie him up and lug him all the way back to Arizona if I have to!" said Iggy.

The Flock cheered at the plan and tilted to the Northeast where Fang and many other troubles awaited them.

**And… done! How was this chapter. It was kind of like a filler, but necessary all the same. Keep faith, my wonderful readers! There will be Fax and more heartbreaking drama ahead! J**

**If I get 7 reviews, I'll even throw in another Fang POV and maybe even… the mystery person on the other side of the phone call with Brigid POV. You probably know who he or she is, but you can still be wrong!**

**Oh, yeah! In review or PM, please tell me whether you want Niggy or Eggy! Majority rules, so vote if you prefer one over the other!**


	6. Doubt and expiration dates

**Thank you! I got enough reviews, so here's the update. So far, Eggy is winning, I will probably end up doing Eggy anyways. Warning, I really suck at other pairings besides Fax but I'll try!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max & the flock… whatevs, read the fic already!**

Normal POV

"Are we there yet?" asked Nudge for the, like, millionth time.

"Not yet, Nudge! Chill out!" snapped Iggy. Nudge looked at Iggy, clearly hurt by his tone and shut up. She slowed down and glided behind the others.

"Nice, Iggy. She's just nervous." said Angel, who's voice was dripping with sarcasm. Angel slowed down to fly next to Nudge.

"Jeez." said Gazzy, who remained by his pyromaniac friend.

"Yeah. This leader thing isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's a lot harder than it looks!" muttered Iggy.

_Yeah. I'll be stuck with this job forever if we don't find Fang soon. _Thought Iggy.

_You're so negative! Stop it! Max I gonna be fine! _Hissed Angel in Iggy's head.

Angel, who was apparently eavesdropping on Iggy's thoughts, scowled at him. Iggy rolled his sightless eyes.

_Stupid mind reader._

Angel glared at Iggy.

"Ok, guys. Let's land, find the nearest café, find out exactly where Fang is, and get some coffee." said Iggy as he tilted to land in the middle of Central Park.

It was at least 1:00 in the morning, so at least no one would be walking in the park. Or at least Iggy hoped.

One by one, the Flock dropped down to find the nearest coffee shop. Iggy stayed in the air for a moment. His heart felt weird. It was beating really, really fast. Faster than normal. Then, like the end of a drum roll, the beating stopped. Iggy gasped. He couldn't breathe.

Iggy's wings locked and he plummeted to the ground.

"Iggy!" Nudge screamed.

Fang POV

"Come on. This way!" whispered Fang as a few dozen little feet followed him down the alleyway.

"Quick down here!" Fang said as he lifted the door to someone's basement. Technically, it was a store's cellar, but who's keeping track of this useless information?

The few dozen mutants that Fang freed from the Institute and a few various branches of the School, scurried into the basement. Fang slid in last.

A few rushed steps of boots ran around above them, then stopped. Every single mutant in the basement held their breath as if their life depended on it, which, sadly, it did.

There were a few muffled voices. Then the footsteps roughly retreated. After about five minutes or so, Fang peeked out the door to see if the School's security guards had left.

Cautiously, Fang slowly gestured for the escapee mutants to come out of the basement. Fang led them halfway to Central Park, when the security guards attacked.

They weren't Erasers or Flyboys, as far as Fang could tell.

"Go! Go, I'll find you! Go hide!" yelled Fang as the first guard attacked. Fang's band of runaway mutants fled to Central Park. Fang hoped that they would be safe.

"I'll keep them safe!" yelled a girl that Fang had rescued from the Institute from here in New York, not ten minutes ago.

Fang had seen her face before…

It was the girl that the Flock had rescued from the Institute the first time. The one that disappeared. She must have gotten recaptured. She reminded him of… Max.

_No! You had to leave her! Don't start thinking about her now._ Fang thought as he received a punch to the jaw.

Yowch!

_Right, I'm fighting for my life right now. I can think about … Max later!_

After a few minutes of street fighting with those goons, Fang left, leaving the guard's unconscious bodies in a deserted alleyway.

After making sure that no one was looking, Fang made a running takeoff and unfurled his glossy black wings. Fang rose high enough where people will only see a large black bird in the sky, not a miserable human-avian hybrid. Fang glided above to Central Park, so he could get a good look at it. His posse of mutants couldn't have gotten too far…

"Iggy!" a girl's high pitched scream reached his ears. Before Fang could register what was happening, something fell on him.

Fang grunted and caught whatever fell on him.

Oh, man.

It was none other than Iggy himself. And he was out cold. Fang couldn't just drop his friend to fall to his spattered doom, so he circled to where the girl's scream came from.

Fang then saw three figures glide out of a cloud. Then stared at him with open mouths.

"F… Fang? Is it really you?" whispered Nudge.

Fang couldn't believe his luck. The trillions of miles in the world and the flock just _had _to be here! But where was…

"Guys! We have to land there is something wrong with Iggy!" ordered Angel.

Wait, how come Angel is leading? That's Max's job! Where is she? Oh, I can't see her again!

"Chill, Fang! She isn't here. You'll never see her again if you don't just land already!" said Angel.

Jeez. She was really bossy. Well, she did learn it from the best.

"My… flock is down below. Come on." I said as I glided down to where a winged girl was waving her arms frantically at the edge of a clearing.

It was the little girl that was like Max.

Fang shot into the woods and leaned Iggy against a tree. The rest of the Flock crowded around him. The mutants that Fang had freed stared at Fang and the remaining Flock members from afar.

The little winged girl scurried over to the Flock huddle.

"Who are you guys? Wait! I remember you! You saved me the first time. What happened to him?" said the little girl.

"We don't know." said Fang.

"By the way, my name's Courage." said the little girl.

Iggy's eyes suddenly opened.

"Guys! We have to find Fang! Nudge, you lead the rest of the Flock to the coordinates of the chip and…" Nudge covered Iggy's mouth. I know, reversal!

"Iggy, I'm right here. Wait a minute, how are you tracking me? Wait… I have a freaking chip?" said Fang.

"Oh." said Iggy sheepishly.

"Yah, nice Iggy." said Nudge.

"That's what happens when you don't tell the blind guy anything!" said Iggy.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Fang said irritably.

"Well…" said Iggy.

"Max is dying because she misses you so much, so we came looking for you hoping that you would come back with us then Max wouldn't die and we can be a family again." said Nudge before anyone could cover her mouth.

"Max. Is. What?" Was all that Fang could manage.

"She's right Fang. Max is dying and getting worse by the day." said Iggy. Fang was silent.

"You're lying." said Fang quietly.

"What?" the Flock shrieked.

"Max would never do that. She doesn't act that weak." said Fang. Fang turned around and told his band of mutants to meet him at the edge of Central Park.

"Max isn't weak, Fang! She loves you! She can't live without you! Fang, she's lost the will to live. Don't let her die!" yelled Nudge.

"Fang, she'd rather die with you by her side than die alone in her room!" Nudge shouted. The rest of the Flock looked at Nudge in surprise. Wow, way to find the bitter truth Nudge!

Fang stiffened, then turned around. Much to Nudges surprise, there were actual visible tears in his eyes. Nobody had ever seen him like this. Fang _never_ cries.

Fang took a running start, then leaped into the air. Fang snapped out his wings, but before the Flock could follow him, he disappeared; completely invisible.

That stuff that Dr. Gunther-whatever had injected into his arm may have some enhancement capabilities after all. Instead of only partially disappearing like he used to, Fang could now vanish without a trace.

"Can't you hear him?" asked Gazzy.

"You know Fang. He's as silent as death." muttered Iggy. Gazzy growled in frustration.

"What are we gonna do now?" whimpered Nudge.

Fang POV

I silently and invisibly flew to the Empire State building. I clumsily landed on one of the eagle's heads. With my eyesight blurred with tears, I silently cursed my luck. Nudge's last words lingered in my head.

'She'd rather die with you by her side than die alone in her room!'

Of course, I'd rather die next to her than alone too.

They had to be lying. Max would never give up on the Flock like that. But why wasn't she here now? Why did the Flock need me so bad, I mean, it's only been a few weeks. They couldn't need me that bad… or maybe… nah.

Ahhhhgg! Why couldn't the answer be obvious for once in my short, miserable life!

I miss her so much… I really, really want to go home. I know, I don't really have a stationary place that I call home. Wherever Max and the Flock are, I'll feel at home.

If the Flock was lying, then why do I have this terrible feeling that they could be right?

_Why is my life so complicated?_

Fang took off, still invisible and searched for the Flock. Of course, they couldn't see him, but he just had to know if Max was really alright.

"Subject 15 has just experienced the first shock of his expiration date." announced a whitecoat observing Iggy falling from the sky on a monitor.

"Good. Now maybe the Flock will see that everything has a time limit, and their time is running out." said a female whitecoat.

"Very good, Ms. Director." said the whitecoat.

"Very soon, Maximum. You will see the real pain of death." said the Director as she caressed the screen bearing a live video feed of Max, who was out cold on her bed.

Then, her number one undercover agent for this assignment strode in through the doors.

However, as he walked through the doors, the wing that were previously resting on his back vanished into dust. He took no notice.

"Man, those robotic wings sure take it out of you! He grunted.

"You did well, Dylan." the Director said. Dylan nodded.

"What did Brigid say? I mean what happened after I left? Anything important?" asked Dylan. A whitecoat brought him a Coke in a can.

"Well, she said that during her many undercover discussions with Fang, that the Flock stole an Itex computer. They have used it to track Fang's chip. A few minutes ago, The Flock found him, but he retreated to the Empire State Building." said the Director.

"Anything else you need me to do?" asked Dylan as he slurped his Coke.

"Well… maybe there's one thing…" said the Director.

"When you figure that out, I'll be in my room. Later, Mom." said Dylan as he sauntered down a hallway.

Nudge bought Iggy a soda while he set up iChat on the laptop. When it was set up, Everyone crowded around the screen.

Then, Ella's face popped on to the screen.

"Guys, I've got some good news, and I've got bad news." said Ella.

"So do we. You first." said Gazzy.

"Well, the good news is that Dylan is gone. Max told him off, and he flew away." said Ella.

"Wait, she actually told him off?" asked Angel.

"Yep. He's long gone. She said that she had wished that he had never been made and he could never replace Fang no matter how hard he tried!" said Ella excitedly.

Iggy whistled.

"Wow, that's harsh, even for Max." he said.

"Yeah, but the bad news was that Brigid came over and asked where Fang was. She was making real progress, but she ran up to Fang's room and hasn't said or done anything since. She hasn't even eaten or drank anything, and that was over a few days ago." said Ella.

"You mean she's worse than when we left?" said Nudge worriedly. Ella nodded gravely.

"Yeah. She doesn't wake up screaming or crying anymore. She hasn't uttered a single sound or moved. I'm really worried." said Ella. She then sniffled.

"I just found my sister! I can't loose her again!" said Ella who was now tearing up.

"Shh.. It's ok, Ella. We found Fang." said Iggy soothingly. Ella blew her nose into a tissue.

"You did? Where… where is he?" asked Ella.

"Well, that's the bad news. You see, Iggy fell out of the sky for who knows why, then out of the blue, Fang caught him. We flew down with him and Fang had a flock of mutants too! We tried to explain that Max was in bad shape, but he didn't believe us! Now Max is gonna die and there's nothing I can do about it! We could track him until we reach China, but Max might die tomorrow! Oh, I'm gonna miss her!" Said Nudge in that super-fast way that she normally does.

Now, with Nudge's negative remarks, Ella and Angel were both crying and Iggy and Gazzy were trying to get a grip on things.

Little did they know, but Fang was hiding in a tree not too far from them and heard the whole conversation.

He flew down, still invisible of course, and crept behind the Flock silently. Then, he suddenly reappeared.

"So, you guy weren't lying." said Fang. Ella, who was shocked on seing Fang appear out of thin air, screamed and fell backwards out of her chair. There was a loud bang as she tumbled to the ground.

The Flock then started screaming thinking that there was something horrible behind them. Iggy immediately said to duck in the language that the Flock only used in emergencies. Before Fang could register what was happening, Iggy had roundhouse kicked him in the side of the head and that was the last thing that he remembered.

**Yeah, sorry for the late update, but I had some serious writers block! Sorry, but there was nothing I could do about it! Anyways, please review! I need 5 before I post the next chapter! I accept 1 word reviews!**


	7. Lovesick

**Hey, sorry for the late update, but I've been really busy with school. Anyways, thank you so much for the reviews! I have 40 REVIEWS! THAT IS THE MOST I'VE EVER GOTTEN FOR A STORY!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max Ride, now read the chapter before I kick your butt into the middle of next week!**

Normal POV

Fang groggily opened his eyes. There was a sharp pain on the right side of his temple, and he winced. Fang hazily awakened from his stupor to find that he was also tied to a tree. To top it off, the Flock was looking at him angrily.

"What the… what do you want!" Fang snapped.

"We want you to come home." said Angel softly.

"I thought you guys got it! I can't come home! I can't let Max get hurt. Besides, I'm supposed to die!" said Fang. "You said it Angel, not me."

Angel tried to scowl, but Fang could see the hurt in her young, blue eyes. Fang would have normally felt bed about telling Angel off, but she wasn't the one who had their butt tied up to a freaking tree.

"lay off her, Fang! We're a flock! We take care of each other! We should've stuck together!" said Gazzy protectively. Yeah, he was Angel's older brother.

"Yeah, Fang. You didn't have to run!" said Nudge. "I mean, we're a flock and we're family and when you left, it was like loosing my older brother. Then Max got sick, and I'm gonna loose her too! I really don't want her to go, that's why a flock should be a fam…mph!"

Iggy had covered Nudge's mouth.

"What she's trying to say, is that we can handle any danger when we're a family. You heard the us talking to Ella. It's true. Max's dying. If you don't believe us by now, here's proof." said Iggy as he flipped Fang's old laptop open. There was a video playing on the screen.

It was all green, for one thing.

"That's the night vision. The green-ness." said Gazzy. Fang saw a girl laying on a bed. The girl was Max.

"What are you trying to…" started Fang.

"Shhh!" said the rest of the Flock.

"Watch." whispered Nudge.

Max was tossing and turning in her sleep and breathing rapidly. All of a sudden, she muttered,

"Fang, FANG!"

Then she took a sharp intake of breath.

"Fang, don't go! Please! Don't leave me here alone!" Max shrieked. Max was sobbing and screaming.

"Come back! Please! I don't want to be here alone! I love you!" Max screamed. I mean, really, really loud screaming.

Then the Flock opened the door. Nudge and Angel ran in to comfort Max while Iggy and Gazzy kept their distance.

"Please come back, Fang! I don't want to be alone!" cried Max.

"Shh… it's ok, Max. it's just a dream. You're not alone. We're here." said Nudge.

"Fang…" whimpered Max. Nudge and Angel had calmed Max down and now Max was only whimpering and crying quietly. Iggy walked over to the camera, which had captured this whole scene and carried it off the dresser then the screen went black.

"Now do you believe us? That happened every night since you left, Fang. Every night, and it got worse by the day. We had to come and get you, she wouldn't eat." said Angel softly.

"I… I never wanted this to happen. She wasn't supposed to…" Fang trailed off.

"She wasn't supposed to what? You can tell us." said Nudge quietly.

"She wasn't supposed to miss me so much… I mean… I'd miss her, but she was supposed to forget about me. She doesn't need a boyfriend who's slated to die soon anyways." mumbled Fang. He hung his head.

"I'll go back. For Max." he said. The flock cheered.

"but I have my own flock now. What'll we do with them? They don't have a home." said Fang.

The Flock was silent. Angel was concentrating hard, almost like she was listening to a voice in her head.

"I got it! Remember that school in the middle of nowhere that the government built for mutants like us? Well, we can put them there and they can live together!" said Angel. The Flock all agreed that her idea was a great idea, hey, just because school didn't work out for them doesn't mean that it couldn't work out for Fang's flock!

Nudge was about to cut Fang loose when Gazzy stopped her.

"What if he tries to escape? We'll never find him with his stupid new power!" said Gazzy.

"One, It's not stupid, my powers are awesome, it's ok to be jealous." smirked Fang. "Two, I won't escape because we both know that Max will die and… well…"

"Spit it out, Lover Boy!" said Iggy.

"I guess I've missed you guys too." mumbled Fang. Fang scowled at Iggy for his last comment.

Iggy, who somehow knew that Fang was scowling at him, smirked. That was kind of creepy.

Nudge cut Fang loose and Fang spread out his massive black wings to stretch them out.

"Now, let's go find my flock! Er, my other flock…" said Fang. The flock took off to find the band of mutants otherwise known as Fang's flock.

_~_ sometime… not now…

The Flock landed in the middle of a clutter of trees.

"About time you got here." said Courage. "I was beginning to think that you'd deserted us!"

Courage appeared to be about eight years old. Her long black hair tumbled down to her waist and she had piercing green eyes.

Gazzy looked at Courage sheepishly.

"So… do you want me to show you how to make a bomb the size of an ant? It's powerful enough to blow up an Eraser!" said Gazzy earnestly.

Angel, who was reading his mind, naturally, smirked.

"Uh… ok." Courage said as she followed Gazzy.

"You see you only need a, here, let me show you." said Gazzy as he and Courage plopped down under the shade of a giant oak.

Once Courage and Gazzy were out of earshot, Angel shot Nudge a smirk.

"Ohh, Gazzy's in love!" sang Nudge.

"That's not all, Iggy's obsessed with… mph!" Angel started as Iggy quickly put his hand over Angel's mouth with strange accuracy.

"Can it, Angel!" snapped Iggy. "If I wanted them to know, I'd tell them!"

"Ouch. Somebody's in a bad mood!" said Nudge. Iggy grumbled something intelligible and stomped off to start a fire and cook something.

"Man, everyone's hiding some sort of crush!" mumbled Angel. Fang shrugged.

"Don't you think that to me! You started it!" said Angel. Fang huffed and went over to check on the rest of his flock.

Now, the only people left were Angel and Nudge.

"So, I guess you know now." said Nudge quietly as she sat under a tree and hugged her knees.

"Are you gonna tell him? If you wait any longer, it could be too late." said Angel as she sat next to Nudge.

"You and I both know what would happen if I did. The Flock would be more torn than it is already. I'll just keep quiet for once." said Nudge. Angel bit her lip. She wanted to help, but she didn't want to lie either. So she told the closest thing to the truth as she could.

"Nudge. Iggy's very confused with his feelings. Maybe he needs you to help him straighten things out." said Angel. Nudge looked up and managed a smile.

"Thanks, Angel. Maybe I will." Nudge said as she stood up.

"I'm gonna take a walk. See ya!" said Nudge as she took off for the woods.

_Huh. See, I'm not bad at leading at all! Much better than Iggy! Heck, I'm as good as Max! _Angel thought. She got up to check on dinner, then she heard the blood curdling scream.

**I know that you are gonna hate me for this. I'm sooo sorry! I stopped here! But, despite school, I will work really hard on updating asap! Reviews help me update faster, so, if you want to see the fate of this story, Review! Luv you guys! (Not in a creepy way. Get your mind out of the gutter, jeez people!)**


	8. Past Emotions

**Hey, thanks for the reviews! You guys are fantastic! Anyways, I really tried to update as soon as possible! With school and all, it's hard to update, but not impossible!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max Ride… I do partially own Courage, a little…maybe… I don't really know but ok.**

Ella POV

I sat on the upstairs balcony, waiting for Iggy and the Flock to come home. All I could see though was a bunch of puffy white clouds and the occasional mockingbird.

I really hope that Iggy hurries up with bringing Fang back. I mean, bringing Fang back would cure Max, right? I mean, no amount of medicine helps. Fang has to be the cure. I hope.

I can't wait to see Iggy again. Wait, can you guys keep a secret? Well, I'll take that as a yes because since Max and Nudge are gone, and Mom is on overtime at work for all the days she has missed, I need somebody to vent all these feelings to.

Ok, here it goes. I like Iggy. A lot. I really don't know what to do because what if Iggy doesn't want a girl who can't fly? I'll just be like an anchor, holding him to the ground. I'm not smart, fast, strong, really beautiful, and I don't have any cool abilities like Nudge or Max do. How can I compete with a super, beautiful flying bird-kid?

I mean I can hear those of you in the back saying stuff like

'You'll get over it!' or 'Just accept it; Iggy digs the girls with wings.'

I know! I'm in the ninth grade! I know what crushes are like. This is different, somehow. Stronger and more potent. Like laughing gas in a dentist's chair. Everything except Iggy fades away.

I was thinking about telling Iggy about my… feelings toward him. Hey, I've got to tell him sometime. Sure, he'll probably just blow off a wallflower like me and I'll just be another stupid normal girl who will never get an amazing, wonderful bird kid as a boyfriend.

But, I'll never know what he _could _have done if I never ask.

Well, It's about 3:00 in the afternoon and I've finished all of my homework. The principal excuses my absent days if the work is done by the time I get back. I just call my friend Angela, who has all of my classes, and she tells me what the homework is.

Enough about my boring school life, I have to go check on Max. I step out off the balcony and into the hallway. As I walk to Fang's room, I can't help but hope that Max will be sitting on her bed, acing like her old self. As I open the door, my hopes are crushed. Max is as still as a corpse on the bed. The only moving part of her body is her slow, steady breathing.

"Max?" I whisper softly. Her eyes looked a thousand miles away.

"Please, please wake up. Eat something. At least drink a little water!" I pleaded. Max was unresponsive and as far as I could tell, she didn't even blink. I sighed.

_Oh Iggy, please hurry!_

Nudge POV

As it turns out, the screaming was just me because Gazzy had just torn my favorite pair of designer jeans that Ella had given to me into little pieces so that he could use it for his mini bombs or whatever. I won't go into on how I got my revenge. Let's just say that it involves a strong wind, a nearby tall tree, and all of Gazzy's underwear.

I was sitting in a low bough of a tree, watching the rest of the mutant camp from a lovely viewpoint.

Courage was intently listening to something that Gazzy had to say, and by the looks of it, Gazzy was making a bomb out of a few left over water bottles, some alcohol from the first aid kit, and a couple of rocks. I don't know how in the heck he's gonna make something explode, but it's Gazzy, so…

Angel was talking to some of the mutants that Fang had freed from all of the different Schools. She was probably trying to pry useful information from them or something.

I know that I once voted that Angel should be the new leader, but now… I really, really miss Max. Sure, she was really bossy and pushy, but everything got done and She was always there for us.

Max comforted me with all of my dilemmas, she helped Iggy when being blind really started to get to him, she reassured and handled the dramatic Gazzy situations better than I could. I still remember Max comforting Angel when she was plagued by nightmares one night.

Angel was only six…er…seven years old after all! In time, maybe she could lead her own Flock but right now, we need Max to be the leader.

Anyways, I saw Fang pull something out of his pocket. I squinted and focused my hawk-like vision and saw that Fang had pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. It wasn't just any piece of paper though, it was a picture of him and Max. His super dark eyes went all distant and sad… like Max's were before we left.

Iggy said that we could leave for Arizona tomorrow and we would iChat Ella so that maybe could pull a few strings and get us a small plane flight back to Arizona. You know, since that most of the mutants with us can't fly and we couldn't carry one, let alone the whole group all the way back to Arizona! We'll just see how it goes.

Back to me… let's see… oh, I forgot about Iggy. Ok, I lied. I saved Iggy for last because I like him… a lot…as than more than a friend. I know, some of you are probably like

'Eww, he's like, three years older than you!' or 'How could Iggy like a noisy, chatterbox like me?'

Yeah, I've thought all of this through. I really don't want to complicate things more than they have to be. I was thinking about telling Iggy the way I feel about him when we bring Fang home and he'll be back to the old chef/pyro that I know and adore. Then Max would be the leader again and she won't be sad that Fang's gone anymore!

Then Max and Fang could be a couple, Iggy and I would be together, and by the looks of it, Courage and Gazzy would be an item too. That leaves poor Angel.. Let's just hope that she finds a partner in crime before we get back, or she might turn on us and we'll all be screwed.

Then, if things don't work out between Iggy and me, example, if he rejects me, then I'll just try to keep Angel company while the rest of the flock is love struck…

Oh, why can't being a bird-kid ever be easy?

Normal POV

Iggy had just finished making some kind of stew from a few cans of soup that they'd brought from Arizona when the mutants filed into a small mob.

For food, of course.

"Um… hey Gazzy?" said Iggy.

"Yep!" piped Gazzy cheerfully. Someone was a little happier than normal… gee I wonder why?

"Could you take the credit card and go get us some plastic cups and bowls and stuff?" asked Iggy.

"Sure, I mean if I can bring Courage with me!" said Gazzy. Iggy shot Gazzy a smirk and Fang repeated the gesture, much to the Flock's surprise.

"What did I do to make the king of darkness smirk at me?" asked Gazzy. Fang scowled and returned his gaze to the fire.

"Sure, you can bring your 'friend', as long as you two lovebirds don't get sidetracked along the way!" cackled Iggy. The flock laughed at various levels of enthusiasm. Now it was Gazzy's turn to scowl.

Courage appeared sort of puzzled, and Gazzy led her in the direction of the nearest convenience store.

While waiting for the cups, the group of mismatched mutants talked around the fire. Well, except for Fang, who stared intently and silently at the flickering flames.

Meanwhile…

"So, do you have night vision too?" asked Gazzy, who was eager to fill up the silence.

"Yeah, they made me as some kind of second batch or something. I was supposed to be in a group after you, but I guess plans change." said Courage as a certain bitterness took hold in her voice.

"Why do you say that?" asked Gazzy curiously as he brushed some bushes aside. Courage held up her shirt so that it exposed her stomach to the pale rays of the moon. (**A/N: Get your minds out of the gutter!)** Long, thick scars were slashed across her midsection.

Gazzy's big blue eyes widened in horror. Not because of her exposed skin, but because he recognized the familiar shape of the jagged scars.

"Erasers?" said Gazzy quietly. Courage stared at the ground and she let her shirt fall back into it's normal position.

"After you guys left, they didn't need any more Avian-recombinant DNA experiments anymore. Besides, Max is really the only one that they care about. So they just used me as an Eraser chew toy. They decided that bird-kids were much better than chimps for training Erasers." whispered Courage.

"How did you survive?" whispered Gazzy.

"They told the Erasers to stop once I was close to death, but sometimes…" at this point, little tears were dripping down Courage's cheeks.

"Sometimes the Erasers didn't listen. They've had to bring me back to life four times." cried Courage softly. Gazzy was horrified that the whitecoats were so low. He wanted to tear each and every one of their cold hearts out.

Much to Courage's surprise, Gazzy reached over and hugged Courage. She stiffened.

Gazzy was terrified that he had scared away any chances of them being friends by this gesture, but Courage softened up, and hugged him back.

Then a gravelly voice said.

"Aww, how sweet, our favorite chew toy has brought us a little snack!" the voice growled. Erasers.

**Yeah, you're probably gonna hate me for this, but I promise to update at least once before the weekend! ****J Please R&R! Reviews will make me update faster!**

**I accept all reviews!**

**Even one word reviews are fine!**

**I'm not picky (Unless you say that Dylan is better**

**than Fang which is sooo not true!) **


	9. Pyromania

**Wow! I got a lot more reviews than I expected! Thanks guys! ****J I even appreciated the criticism because, how else am I supposed to make the fic better? As a reward, someone gets a new skill in this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max Ride and I never will :/ **

Previously…

"_Aww, how sweet, our favorite chew toy has brought us a little snack!" the voice growled. Erasers._

…

Gazzy immediately prepared for either battle or flight. Courage tensed up beside him. Her eyes were filled with more hate than Gazzy thought was possible.

"Who's ready for a play date?" hissed an Eraser. Seven other gravely voices cackled in response as they stepped out of the shadows. Eight Erasers total. Gazzy didn't think that he could take all eight Erasers at once.

He had to protect Courage and warn the others.

"Bring it on, you flea-bitten mutts!" snarled Gazzy. The Erasers growled as their faces morphed grotesquely into wolf muzzles. The Erasers crept forward until Gazzy and Courage were surrounded.

Crap.

Gazzy frantically searched his pocket for the mini-bombs that he and Courage had made earlier that evening. They weren't there. He must've left them back over by the tree.

Double crap.

Great, now he had to fight the old fashioned way. Good old punches and kicks. Oh my gosh, he was gonna get creamed.

"Courage, take out only what you have to. Just enough to escape. Then warn the others. I'll distract them." whispered Gazzy.

"No, I'm not leaving you here alone! They could kill you or worse!" hissed Courage.

"What's worse than death?" mumbled Gazzy.

"Lot's of things, trust me." said Courage cynically as she balled up her fists.

"Stop talking!" barked an Eraser as he lunged. The rest of the Erasers did the same.

Courage kicked an Eraser on the base of it's spine, and it crumpled. Then she spun and chopped at one's neck. Then one came up behind her and raked it's razor sharp claws down the side of her arm.

She snarled and lashed out at the Eraser. It punched her in the gut and she bent over, then it punched her on the side of her face. Oh, that was gonna leave a really nasty bruise. Courage kicked the Eraser in the you-know-where and it uttered a high pitched squeak. She hit it as hard as she could on the temple and it was out like a light.

She was free. She could escape and warn the others. As she shot off toward the camp, she desperately looked back to see if Gazzy was alright. She wanted to stay behind and help Gazzy, but the wounds that she had already received were sapping what little strength she had left.

Gazzy had a cut above his left eyebrow and blood was starting to drip into his eye.

"Go Courage! I'll be fine. Go!" grunted Gazzy as he took a blow to the stomach. Courage gulped down her tears and rocketed toward the camp.

When she got there, she was bombarded with questions.

"Where is Gazzy?"

"Did you get the plates?"

"Did you and Gazzy kiss?"

"OMG, what happened?"

"Are you ok?"

"Stop! Just stop already! Gazzy is being attacked! Please, somebody, help us! Angel and Iggy can lead the group somewhere safe. Here's the credit card." Courage said as fast as she could.

"Follow me! Help us!" she pleaded as she headed back to Gazzy. On her way back to the woods, she snatched a lighter. Courage shot through the woods and found the clearing where Gazzy and the Erasers were fighting.

She was too late. Gazzy fell to the ground and an Eraser leapt to tear his throat out.

"NO!" Courage screeched as she flicked the lighter. A small flame appeared at the tip of the lighter.

Courage made a shoving motion toward the Eraser and The little flame grew and rose into a fiery inferno of death. The flame shot over to the Eraser and fried it on the spot. This all happened in less than a second.

As Courage pointed to an Eraser, The flame leapt wildly to that Eraser and curled around it like a fiery boa constrictor.

She only had to fry about four before the rest fled only slightly singed. One of the Erasers who fled was still on fire. I guess he forgot to stop, drop, and roll.

Courage closed her open palms and the flames extinguished. She then sprinted toward Gazzy, who was not even slightly singed.

"Gazzy?" whispered Courage. His bright blue eyes were closed and the tips of his hair were wet with sweat and blood.

"Come on. I'm gonna take you to the others. Then you can show me how to make more bombs. That's gonna be fun!" Courage said softly as she lifted Gazzy up with whatever strength she had left.

She took a short running start and unfurled her honey and cream colored wings. Her primary feathers were honey colored and the color lightened as the feathers got higher up on her wings until there was a pure cream color.

She laboriously lifted Gazzy higher until she made it to a wind current. The current brought her to two flying forms.

_Oh please, please don't let it be to flying Erasers! _Courage thought wearily.

It wasn't. It was Fang and Iggy.

"Courage! We were coming to help, but you did…" started Iggy. "Fang told me that you could control fire! Awesome!"

"Not… Now…" mumbled Courage. She was about to drop out of the sky at this point because Gazzy probably weighed more than she did.

"Don't worry. I've got him. Follow me." said Fang as he gripped Gazzy. Courage was too tired to led go of Gazzy's hand.

"It's ok. He's safe now. You can let go." said Fang. Courage warily let Gazzy go. Fang and Iggy glided over to a hotel, where Nudge and Angel had rented a few hotel rooms with the credit card. They were trying to avoid using the credit card, because someone could track them with it, but this was an emergency.

Courage was exhausted. She gave a few pitiful flaps then whispered

"He's safe…" as she plummeted toward the ground. Iggy heard her whisper those two words.

"Fang, where's Courage?" said Iggy.

"Oh, jeez! Iggy, twelve o'clock! She's falling!" said Fang. Iggy dove and caught Courage who was out cold from exhaustion.

Iggy and Fang jetted to the hotel, where Nudge was waiting on a high balcony.

Nudge had rented four large hotel rooms. Two rooms for girls and two rooms for boys. Nudge would watch the girls in one room while Angel would keep an eye out for the girls in the other room.

Iggy and Gazzy would be in one room full of boys while Fang would monitor the other room of boys. A simple, yet effective system.

Fang and Iggy laid Courage and Gazzy on a bed in Iggy's room. Fang had tended to the scratches on Gazzy and Courage with the first aid kit.

Fang had left to put his group of mutants to bed and went to sleep himself. Nudge and Angel did the same.

Iggy had decided to let Courage and Gazzy sleep on one bed and he made sure that the rest of the mutants were comfortable before he crept to the laptop.

Iggy stumbled toward the bathroom and closed the door so that the laptop's light wouldn't wake anyone up. He already knew how to turn it on and he did. Then he plugged in a set of headphones.

The best part was that the iChat thing was against a white background, so he could see it. Ella's name popped up on iChat and Iggy clicked on her name. Ella's head popped on the screen.

"Hey Iggy! Um, where are the others and why are you in a bathroom?" asked Ella. Iggy smirked. He recounted the events of the past day all the way up to now in the hotel bathroom.

"Oh, wow! The amazing life of a bird-kid." said Ella with a little envy in her tone. She sighed. "I wish I could fly so I could go on all of the adventures with you." said Ella sadly.

Iggy frowned.

"Trust me, you don't want the price that comes with these. Endless pain and turmoil kind of spoil the fun." said Iggy as he let his wings spread out a bit.

"Still, I wish I could fly…" muttered Ella. "Whatever. Like that's gonna happen. Anyways, you have to come back! Max isn't moving. She probably won't last another two days. I… I hate just watching her fade away!"

"It's ok Ella. Listen, I need you to tell your mom to get us a jet. Some of the mutants that Fang freed can't fly and we can't fly them there. I also highly doubt that airport security would let some of these guys pass. They look like mistakes. And, our wings would show up on the X-Rays anyways so we'd totally be screwed at any public airport. Driving would take too long so that's out. We need a private jet." said Iggy.

"Ok. I'll try as hard as I can. I just wish I could help more." sighed Ella.

"Hey, you're already saving our butts for like, the third or fourth time this week and… I think that you look beautiful without the wings." said Iggy sheepishly.

Ella's eyes lit up.

"REALLY? Wow, that's so, I mean thanks!" said Ella.

"Besides, why would you want to hang out with a bunch of hybrid mutts like us when you can have a normal life?" said Iggy as he snapped his wings against his back.

"You are not hybrid mutts and I'd pick you over any other boring normal boy any day." said Ella. Now it was Iggy's turn to look up grinning.

"Yep. You're way more normal than some of the freaks that prowl my school. Trust me. Some of them are probably more freaky than any of the mutants in your group." laughed Ella. Iggy laughed too. There was a muffled voice in the background.

"Mom's home! I gotta go. See you later Iggy!" chirped Ella.

"Bye!" said Iggy as the screen darkened. Iggy walked out of the bathroom and quietly put the laptop back in it's place. He then curled up on a place on the floor and drifted off to sleep.

Ella ran downstairs. The door was open alright, but Dr. Martinez was nowhere to be found.

"Mom?" said Ella as she walked into the kitchen. Then, Brigid appeared.

"Uh, Brigid?" said Ella. "What are you do…" Ella started, but was abruptly cut off by a sharp pain in her arm. Brigid had shot a needle that had injected something into her arm.

Ella fell so her knees, then slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"The subject has been injected with the new serum formula. It should take effect by morning." Brigid said into her phone.

"Very good. Nice job, Brigid." said the voice on the other line. Brigid smirked as she hauled Ella's unconscious body up to her bed. Her mother wouldn't suspect a thing. That is, until morning.

**Yes, it's somewhat of a cliffy. More reviews will help me update faster! Please, every review counts! I apologize for the lack of Fax in this chapter, but I promise, promise to put it in future chapters! This fic will be crammed with fax by the last chapter or I will die trying!**


	10. Out of Time

**Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews! I LOVED THEM! Well, here's the chapter… and a death wish! (In the chapter, not in real life!)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max Ride… FAX 4 EVER!**

_Previously…_

"_Uh, Brigid?" said Ella. "What are you do…" Ella started, but was abruptly cut off by a sharp pain in her arm. Brigid had shot a needle that had injected something into her arm._

_Ella fell so her knees, then slumped to the ground, unconscious._

"_The subject has been injected with the new serum formula. It should take effect by morning." Brigid said into her phone._

"_Very good. Nice job, Brigid." said the voice on the other line. Brigid smirked as she hauled Ella's unconscious body up to her bed. Her mother wouldn't suspect a thing. That is, until morning._

Ella POV

_Ouch, my head!_ I thought as I sat up… on my bed?

_What happened?_ I thought groggily as I sat up and looked at the full size mirror by my closet. My shirt was really bulky.

_Man, I really have to lay off of Mom's cookies!_

I stood up to change my pajamas when I felt a weird, twitchy feeling on my back.

_Did mosquitoes attack me in my sleep or something? Oh please don't let it be a big ugly rash! Everyone at swim practice will make fun of me!"_ I thought frantically as I slipped my baggy T-shirt off. I could clearly see whatever was on my back through my low- backed cami.

I turned around to look at my back in the mirror. I felt like I was gonna barf. Seriously, the old saying 'be careful what you wish for' has really bit me in the butt this time.

All of the events from last night came crashing down on me. I fell backwards in a faint. Before my thoughts abandoned me, the bright image of my brown and tan speckled wings haunted me.

Normal POV

"Ella? I'm leaving for work!" shouted Dr. Martinez. Huh. Usually Ella told her goodbye before she went to work. Dr. Martinez walked up the stairs and opened Ella's door.

Dr. Martinez shrieked in shock. Ella was curled up on the bed, unconscious. Her laptop was still running on it's screensaver. The ultimately shocking part of this scene was the fact that Ella had a low backed tank top on and sticking out of the top of it were… wings.

_How did this happen? She was normal yesterday!_ thought Dr. Martinez hysterically. She lightly touched Ella's wings, as if to test if they were, in fact, real. Her hand came in contact with the soft plumage on Ella's wing.

_How…what…why?_ were Dr. Martinez's shocked thoughts. Suddenly, Ella's laptop made a pleasant ding noise. Dr. M. tapped a key to dispose of the screensaver. A little message popped up next to the small pixilated mailbox icon. It read 'You have one new message!'

Dr. M clicked on the little mailbox and the message filled the screen. It said,

_Hey Ella! Please don't 4get 2 ask ur mom about getting us a privat plane. We can't stay here much longr and the other mutants are getting restles. We really need your help._

_P.S. This is Nudge who's typing this and I say hi!_

_C-ya soon, we hope_

_The Flock_

A plane? What do they need a plane for? What other mutants? Dr. M was so confused. Then another message popped up on the screen.

_Oh, please send the jet somewhere in rural New York. Somewhere inconspicuous. We'll work out all the details on iChat at 4:00pm in New York time, ok?_

_Once again,_

_The Flock_

_Well I guess I'm calling in sick today. _thought Dr. M. _I'm also apparently making a few phone calls. What the heck do they need a plane for? They do have wings. Poor, poor Ella. I'm going to get to the bottom of this wing thing if it kills me._ Dr. M. left to get her cell phone. She had a long day ahead of her.

Courage and Gazzy woke up to find Iggy with a few dozen bags full of fast food. Gazzy blushed when he realized that he was hopelessly tangled up in the bed sheets…with Courage. Courage must of realized the same thing because she abruptly tried to get up but fell back onto the bed. An involuntary moan of pain escaped from her lips.

"What hurts?" asked Gazzy. "I could kiss it to make it better!" Gazzy's eyes glimmered with hope in his eyes. He had obviously been listening to some of Iggy's pick-up lines.

"Everything. Hurts. Go. Away." growled Courage.

"Ouch." said Iggy as he bit into one of those greasy breakfast sandwich things. "That's gotta hurt!"

"Shut up Iggy!" grumbled Gazzy as he stomped over to claim his share of breakfast.

"Jeez. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." said Iggy with a strait face. Then he busted out laughing. "…wrong side of the bed! I'm a genius!" cackled Iggy. Gazzy knocked the half-eaten food out of Iggy's hand.

"Hey, chill dude! I was just kidding!" protested Iggy.

Gazzy snatched a egg- sausage biscuit and angrily chomped down on it. The door cracked open. Gazzy and Iggy prepared to defend the food… and everyone else.

The door opened wider. It was Fang. Iggy sighed in relief.

"Hey, I thought I smelled food." said Fang. "Don't worry. Everyone's sacked out in my room." said Fang. Iggy handed a bag of food to everyone in his room.

"We're gonna have to make a few trips to McDonald's if we're gonna feed all of these guys." said Fang quietly.

"That's an understatement." mumbled Iggy. Courage muttered something from the bed.

Fang shot Gazzy a look that said 'What's her problem?' Gazzy shrugged.

"She's sore from the fight with the Erasers I guess." said Gazzy through a mouthful of food.

"No, I'm sore from flying while carrying you halfway across New York after a fight with Erasers and frying them all into little werewolf flavored crisps." Courage said irritably. Gazzy gaped at Fang and Iggy. Fang smirked.

"Yeah! Fang described Courage using her skill of controlling fire to fry those flea-bags!" said Iggy who was grinning. "It was awesome!"

"She…she can control… fire?" gasped Gazzy, who remained slack jawed.

"You bet I did! And I'll fry you too if you keep your mouth open like that!" snapped Courage without looking up. That was the end of that discussion.

After the Flock fed everyone, which involved quite a few trips to fast food places, dragging Nudge and Courage out of bed, and convincing the mutants that sausage was for eating purposes only, Angel then suggested to move everyone to a different location in case they were being tracked.

After a brief discussion, the flock agreed that this was the best plan. It was also decided that the less-normal looking mutants would wear hoodies and sunglasses to hide their faces.

They left the hotel and walked down the street. Angel, Courage and Nudge were in the front while Gazzy and Iggy were in the middle and Fang brought up the rear of the herd of mismatched mutants.

They were headed to the outskirts of New York City, where they would find an inconspicuous looking old motel and stay the night, then, hopefully, get on a plane and get home to Max. Or at least, that was the plan.

The group passed a cookie shop. The heavenly aroma swept through the open doors and wafted to the noses of all who passed. Fang looked sadly at the small shop. Angel, who was being nosy and patrolling his thoughts, shot him a sympathetic glance. Fang shot her a trademark 'You better get out of my head before I kick your butt' look and Angel quickly resumed talking to Nudge.

While in New York for the first time, Max had made them buy chocolate chip cookies from practically every store in New York in search of 'the perfect cookie'. After that, every time Fang saw a cookie store, he would always think of the gleeful expression as she bit into a new type of cookie. He almost never saw her like that.

He missed her so much. He'd die a thousand deaths to see her again. He couldn't believe that Max the Indestructible, his Max, would give up life after she had fought so hard to keep it. All because she couldn't be with him.

Max was beautiful, powerful, funny, occasionally caring, and everything that he could ever want. She was special. She was the one that everyone cared about. Everyone cared about her destiny. She was supposed to be the savior of mankind.

He was nothing but a kid with huge black wings that would never just 'fit in'. He was one experiment among thousands. He was one person among millions. He was nothing special. But she chose him anyway.

Fang felt awful that he had done this to Max. She was like a wilting flower. A super tough, genetically enhanced wilting flower. She was gonna die if someone didn't do anything about it.

He had to be that someone. He just wondered how much longer she would hand on before giving up.

_Hang on, Sweetheart. We're coming. And I'm coming with them._ Fang said in his thoughts, as if Max could hear his thoughts.

**(A/N: I really just had to include the sweetheart thing. I absolutely adored it when Fang nicknamed Max that in 'The letter')**

His thoughts of his soul mate were shattered when Nudge's piercing scream reached his ears. Oh Crap. They were in the outskirts of New York! He should have been protecting them!

Fang bolted down the crumbly, unkempt sidewalk as he practically ran into Nudge. Nudge was crying and holding Iggy down on the sidewalk. Iggy was writhing on the ground with his eyes rolled in the back of his head. Fang was almost positive that Iggy was having a seizure.

Angel was staring at Iggy in utter shock, confusion and fear.

"Fang, What's wrong with him?" cried Nudge. The rest of the mutants had crowded around Iggy; looking at him with concern and pity. They had probably seen many of their friends die this way.

Then it stopped and Iggy was still.

"OMG, is he dead? He can't be dead! I was just talking to him when he fell and hit his head on the pavement! Oh Lord, please don't let him be dead!" babbled Nudge while more tears trailed down her cappuccino colored cheeks.

Then a terrifying thought came across Fang's mind. The Flock had gathered around Iggy. Fang couldn't stop his hand from shaking as he slowly brushed the hair away from the back of Iggy's neck The whole Flock let out a collective gasp. Angel, Nudge and Gazzy started sobbing uncontrollably. Fang was frozen. He couldn't believe it. It can't be true. Tattooed on the back of Iggy's neck was this month's date and year. Iggy's expiration date had come.

**Yeah, you probably hate me now. I have a plan with this story, so please trust me and keep faith! Review and I will add another chapter by tomorrow! Keep faith, my amazing readers!**


	11. Shattered

**I'm SOOOO sorry that I didn't update sooner! I've suffered from a terrible case of writers block and I've had an unexpectedly busy weekend. Anyways, to make up for it, I'm going to make the chapter include cute, kiddy Fax.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Max ride, I wouldn't have to write this fic. It would totally be in the books.**

_Previously…_

_Then a terrifying thought came across Fang's mind. The Flock had gathered around Iggy. Fang couldn't stop his hand from shaking as he slowly brushed the hair away from the back of Iggy's neck The whole Flock let out a collective gasp. Angel, Nudge and Gazzy started sobbing uncontrollably. Fang was frozen. He couldn't believe it. It can't be true. Tattooed on the back of Iggy's neck was this month's date and year. Iggy's expiration date had come._

"What are we gonna do now?" whispered Courage. The sobbing was now reduced to quiet crying and sniffling.

At this point, Fang had no idea of what to do. Iggy, the 'leader' that was filling in for Max, was dead. Gone. Never to return. He died without knowing how amazing falling in love feels. He had never even got his first kiss.

How were they gonna get Iggy's body back home? They didn't even know if the plane was coming and if so, where. They definitely couldn't fly or walk around New York carry Iggy's body around everywhere.

"What are we supposed to do, now that Iggy's gone?" said Angel quietly.

"I'll figure it out! Give me a minute!" snapped Fang. The Flock, amongst their tears, were taken aback by Fang's attitude. Wow, he really wasn't that great at this leader thing. Not like Max was.

Max always acted like she had a plan until she actually did, then the plan would usually work. If it didn't she improvised. He wished with every cell in his genetically enhanced body that Max was here. She would know exactly what to do.

Then it came to him.

"Guys, see that abandoned looking park over there? We'll stay there. We can't exactly bring Iggy in a hotel. Gazzy and Courage, lead the rest of the kids to a safe place in there. Angel and Nudge, stay in the back and make sure that no one don't get lost. I'll follow you guys in the air with Iggy." said Fang. After getting over the shock of hearing him say so much at one time, the Flock did what they were told. Fang grabbed Iggy's limp body and took a running takeoff.

_Jeez, this is hard. If Courage could carry Gazzy as far as she did, I can carry Iggy._ thought Fang as he laboriously flapped his mammoth black wings. Fang circled the small wooded park. Seriously, New York could take better care of it's smaller parks. However, it was good for hiding.

Fang saw Gazzy's white speckled wings come up over the tree line, and he followed. Courage had made a small fire using dry wood, which created less smoke. Gazzy managed to grab a few pans and some cans of soup from the packs and started to make some soup with the help of Courage.

Angel was talking with some of the mutants. Nudge wasn't doing much at all. She sat under a tree and looked blankly at the ground. Fang laid Iggy's body on a bed of leaves and walked over to Nudge.

"This is the longest I've heard you not talk." said Fang quietly. Nudge didn't look up or abandon her lifeless expression.

"He's gone. I love him and he's gone. I never even told him…" said Nudge as she hid her face with her wings and sobbed. Fang hid it really well, but he was shocked. He had never even noticed that Nudge had feelings like that toward Iggy. He was probably preoccupied with his thoughts about Max to really take notice.

"Shh.. Nudge. It's ok." said Fang as he put his hand on her shoulder. Nudge shrugged his hand off.

"No! How can you say that it's ok? Iggy's gone and I never got to tell him that I loved him! It might be ok with you, but it's not ok with me! You got to tell Max that you loved her before she dies! I never can have that feeling!" shouted Nudge as she ran off into the woods, crying.

Fang leaned against the tree and put his head in his hands. Nudge was right. There was nothing he could do about it.

_Nudge was wrong about one thing._ said an eerie voice in his head, aka, Angel. Fang was about to tell her to get the heck out of his head when Angel's voice interrupted his thoughts.

_Wait, just hear me out. Um, there was one thought that I understood in Max's head. I didn't want to tell the others, because it deals with you and you only._

_Well, what was it?_ Fang thought irritably.

_Umm… Max…_ Angel trailed off.

_What did she say?_ Fang growled in his thoughts.

_Alright! She doesn't believe that you love her! She thinks that you ditched her when things got too complicated! Are you happy now?_ said Angel. Fang's dark, obsidian eyes widened. He sank into a sitting position. How could she believe that? He loves her! He had since the day that she appeared in the dog crate next to his.

_*flashback*_

_Fang sat in his crate. He was two years old at the time and he was alone. He plucked a feather off his wing and he winced. He twirled the sleek black feather in his small hands._

_Then, the heavy metal doors opened. A sliver of light reached throughout the dimness of his lonely room. A whitecoat stepped in holding a crate much like his. The whitecoat was flanked by two Erasers._

_The Erasers sneered at him from behind the whitecoat. Fang glared at them with his dark eyes._

"_Hello there, little freak. We've brought you a little… surprise." The whitecoat dropped the crate on the ground right next to Fang with a loud bang. A pair of beautiful eyes darted around, with bloodlust and hate embedded in them._

"_She's special. Be glad that you'll ever lay eyes on her. She is our greatest achievement." gloated the whitecoat. The girl in the crate hissed and snarled at the whitecoat._

_The whitecoat chuckles as he snapped his fingers and the Erasers followed him out of the room. The door slammed shut._

_Fang's eyes peered over the bars on the side of his dog crate. The girl was doing the same thing. Fang's eyes were looking at her with curiosity while the girl's eyes looked at him with suspicion. _

_Fang didn't blame her. Everything that involved the whitecoats was horrible. For all that girl knew, he could transform into something that would torture her until death._

_Fang reassured her with an attempt at a smile. He' only smiled once before, when he had defeated a bunch of Erasers and he got an extra portion of food that night from the whitecoat called Jeb. Fang liked hurting the monsters that had hurt him so many times._

_The girl saw Fang's attempt at a smile, which was a little more than a twitch of his lip and the girl unexpectedly burst out laughing._

_Fang would have normally scowled at her making fun of him, but he smiled for real. The second real one in his life. The girl's brown eyes glimmered in the dim lighting of the room._

_Fang reached his thin, malnourished arm through the bars of his cage and into the cage of the girl. The girl shot back away from his arm. Scared that he might try to hurt her. Fang looked at her. She was held in his intense gaze for a moment, then she timidly reached her hand out and grabbed his hand._

_They both were amazed on how good a gentle touch felt, because they had never received one before. The girl grinned at Fang, and he swore that the whole room lit up. Butterflies danced in the pit of his empty stomach. He had never felt that way before._

_At that point, Fang had decided that Max was an angel, because she was the most beautiful and wonderful thing that he had ever seen._

"_Max." said the girl as she pointed to herself. Their English wasn't advanced, so they had to stick with short, imperfect sentences. The girl, Max, was still holding his hand. He never wanted her to let go._

"_Max." Fang repeated as he pointed to her. Fang had never picked a name for himself. He remembered the only day besides today that he had smiled. _

_He had hit an Eraser so hard in the head, that it's tooth had fallen out. Fang picked up the long incisor and kept it until that night, when Jeb saw it, and explained that it was an Eraser's fang. Before then, Fang didn't know what it was. The fang from the Eraser sat in the back of his crate._

"_Fang." said Fang as he pointed to himself. Max smiled as she pointed to him and said,_

"_Fang."_

_Max yawned, but she didn't want to leave her new friend. Then, she scooted her crate closer to his, so that the metal bars on the side were touching. Fang put his hand on the bars and Max did the same, so that their skin was still touching._

_They soon fell asleep, with their fingers intertwined through the bars._

_Before he fell asleep that day, Fang decided that he'd protect Max and stay by her side until the day that he died. She was an angel, and didn't deserve to be here._

_*End Flashback*_

Fang was lost in early childhood memories with Max after that.

It was well past dark when Nudge returned. Fang still sat by the tree, his eyes hollow.

"Angel?" whispered Nudge. Angel was on watch.

"Yeah, Nudge?" Angel whispered back.

"Not to be nosy or anything, but what's up with Fang? I know he misses Max and all, but he's never like this." said Nudge. For a moment, Angel was concentrated hard. Then, she smiled sadly.

"Well, do you know?" asked Nudge.

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you." said Angel.

"Try me, because I've seen a lot of…" started Nudge, but Angel cut her off.

"Alright. Fang is as broken as Max is. On the inside. You know how Max was haunted by memories and felt completely alone and shattered on the inside. Well, Fang feels the same way that she does. Except, well stronger. Apparently, he's loved her his whole life." said Angel softly.

Nudge looked at Fang quickly, then turned back to Angel.

"Fang is just better at hiding his feelings than Max is. Iggy's death may have just cracked him on the inside, and now… he's just like Max." said Angel. Nudge got up and walked away without saying anything.

She had not gotten off worse than Fang. Not by a long shot. Nudge had only started to love Iggy over the past year or so. Fang had loved Max his whole life. If she died, there was no doubt in he mind that Fang would die with her.

If they didn't get home soon, the Flock would be shattered, kind of like her heart.

**Yeah, I tried to incorporate a little past Fax, but I will update later this week, and a super surprise will be revealed in it! So, if you review, I will update faster!**


	12. Awakening

**Thank you for the reviews! I love them all! ****J I also love those of you who added me to their story alert/ favorite story lists! You guys rock. Ok, so there will be more drama in this chapter! I'll spice it up a bit so you won't be bored. Anyways… on with the disclaimer!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max Ride… or Fang… Aww, now you're just making me **

**sad! Please read the fic already!**

_Previously…_

_She had not got off worse than Fang. Not by a long shot. Nudge had only started to love Iggy over the past year or so. Fang had loved Max his whole life. If she died, there was no doubt in he mind that Fang would die with her._

_If they didn't get home soon, the Flock would be shattered, kind of like her heart._

Normal POV

Nudge shuffled over to the bed of leaves were Iggy laid. Normally, seeing a dead body would give Nudge the creeps and gross her out.

Iggy didn't look like he was dead though. It appeared as if he was merely sleeping. Nudge didn't let herself hope, because she didn't want her heart to be broken once again. With the expiration date tattooed on the back of his neck, the bone chilling crack his head made when he fell against the pavement, and the lack of brain activity, ( Angel checked to find out if Iggy's brain had any activity readings. The answer was negative.) it all added up to the same, grim conclusion.

Iggy was dead.

The moonlight spilled on to Iggy's pale body. A slight breeze caused his strawberry blonde hair to ruffle, then lie still again. Iggy's sightless blue eyes were closed, and they would never open again.

He looked so peaceful, that Nudge almost cried. Peace was hard to come by in the life of the Flock. Iggy would never have to worry again. Nudge then knelt by Iggy's side.

"Iggy, I know that we've never been close, but there's something that I want to tell you. It will change the way you see me, for like, forever, but I really want to tell you. Angel told me that Fang calls Max his soul-mate. Well, at least he does in his head. Anyways, if you didn't know what that means, it means that a boy and a girl not only love each other, but were predetermined to be together by fate. What I'm trying to say… well.. Ahh! Why is this so dang hard! I love you Iggy! I know this is a lot to take in, but if you really look in your heart, I'm hoping you'll feel the same way about me." said Nudge.

She was so used to being interrupted by now, that she didn't have anything else planned to say. Nudge knew that Iggy would never answer her, and she'd always wonder what his answer would be. Nudge absolutely hated to wonder, and she hated the gaping hole in her chest that kept reminding her with bitter persistence that Iggy was dead.

Nudge cried into Iggy's chest. She cried until she could hear her heart beating in her ears. Her breathing was shallow and irregular. There was also another set of breathing.

Oh, No! What if that breathing was the breath of an Eraser and it was stalking them! She held her breath so that she could hear the direction that the unidentified set of breathing came from. The shallow breaths were really close.

She then felt the warm breeze of an exhale graze against her cheek. She wildly looked around to see a blue pair of eyes staring back at her. Nudge shrieked out an alarm and a hand shot up to cover her mouth.

"Shh… It's ok Nudge. Did you guys miss me?"

Nudge pulled away from the hand, but could only manage little, shallow breaths. She managed to whisper one word before blacking out.

"Iggy?"

Max POV

I was awakened from my hazy dream state by a strong voice.

**Max**

I bolted upright. I remembered this voice from somewhere…

**Max, It's me. **

"Fang?" I whimpered, yes actual whimpering.

**No, It's the Voice, you remember me.**

Oh. Right, I remember it all now. I couldn't help but feel disappointed that it was the Voice and it wasn't Fang who returned home.

**Max, this is extremely important,**

Yeah, the Voice pretty much deserted me after Fang left… not unlike Fang himself. Now I was irritable. Who or what did this Voice think it was? After leaving me, _now_ it decides to show up and give me info on the 'next mission'.

Well, so sorry, pal!

"Save it! I don't feel like being a puppet for Itex or the School today! So, just go back to what you were doing when you left me alone!" I said. Whoops, I forgot that the voice can read my thoughts. Whatever. I'll just keep my sarcastic rants in my head.

**You rejected the mate that was made for you, he was specially designed for you, but you were too stubborn to listen.**

Yeah, specially designed. I grew up with Fang and he knows me like he knows himself. Why in the world did they think that they could replace him with some lab knockoff? Yeah, I don't regret my choice.

**Now that you've resisted all attempts at cooperation, you will die.**

Wait a second, hold the phone! The Voice is supposed to tell me the positive stuff. Usually. How is death a positive thing? Oh, now I get it. It's one of those tests or something.

_Yeah, Voice. I'm gonna die. Just like everyone else will. We've gone over this before. You really need to be more original when it comes to the 'torture Max with meaningless riddles' part of your job._

**This is no joke, Max. The School wants nothing, absolutely nothing to do with you now. You've been scheduled in to be terminated.**

Yeah, when is someone _not_ trying to kill me? Tell me something I don't know.

**Max, you can't avoid this killer no matter what you do.**

Sure I can, I've been avoiding bird-kidmurderers practically my whole life, that is when I wasn't living in a dog crate. Suddenly, a white hot pain seared the back of my neck. I crumpled into a miserable ball. Before I blacked out, the Voice said one last thing.

**Max, Your expiration date is almost here.**

I woke up and immediately remembered the previous events. I clutched the back of my neck as I staggered over to my bathroom mirror. Not only did I notice how unkempt I looked but there was also the most dreaded thing I've ever seen. There was a tattoo on the back of my neck with this year's year and month. My expiration date.

Oh, man… oh no… I can't just… die! Not without a fight! I'm THE Maximum Ride! If there's a loophole, no matter how miniscule, I'll find it and take it. There's no loopholes to an expiration date. There's no planning or fighting it. It just stands there, haunting your every waking thought and nightmare.

This is worse than any sick torture that the School can come up with. Waiting for death is a whole lot worse than actually dieing. In fact I'd rather flat out die than just sitting here, waiting to die! As long as it'd end the gruesome wait!

I sank to the floor, putting my head between my knees. What am I supposed to do. The Flock is gonna… wait… WHERE THE HECK IS THE FLOCK?

I haven't seen them or even heard their muffled whispering in the hallways… at all… for like… man, I suck at keeping track of time when I'm in Fang- withdrawal mode.

No more. I need to be tough, Max. I have to be me before I… die. Nope… I won't cry again, for the rest of my short, miserable life.

Back to the Flock, I'm gonna find them, tell them goodbye, tell Ella that she's the best sister ever, and tell Mom that she's the most amazing mom in the whole Universe. Yeah, I know, I'm being nice. I wouldn't be tough, leader Max if I was nice, right?

Wrong! I've gotta tell them the truth before I die. Some things are better left unsaid, while other things are destined to be spoken. I think I read that in a fortune cookie one day.

I'll tell Iggy that he's in charge and since Angel has a Voice all of a sudden, she was partially right about her being a good leader. Iggy's wiser… somewhat… oh, what am I saying? Iggy's not wise! Iggy's the oldest, so he leads and consults Angel for advice… it's sad but true. A fifteen year old needs to consult a seven year old for wisdom and advice.

Whatever, the life of a bird kid is almost never normal. The last thing that I'm gonna tell the Flock before I die is to never, under any circumstance, let Fang back into the Flock. He's a coward for leaving us. He left me… us when things got too tough for his liking. He just wanted to save his own hide.

I walked up the stairs to Ella's room. First, I was gonna ask where the Flock was and tell her to tell the Flock where they could find me. Then, I'd tell her goodbye, then tell Mom goodbye, then go to the place that I love the most.

I had quite a nice plan, and none of it involved any waterworks on my end. I opened the door and walked into Pinktopia, aka, Ella's room. Practically, everything was pink. Pink wall, pink ipod dock, pink bed, pink pillows… well, you get the idea.

Ella was laying on her, bed reading some girly teen gossip magazine.

"MAX!" Ella screeched as she barreled into me, gripping me into a rib cracking bear hug.

"Ella, you can let go now! I didn't come back from the dead or anything!" I wheezed. Ella released her grip on me.

"You're ok! You're up! You're speaking full sentences! You're…" I covered her mouth. Yikes! She was like Nudge the second or something.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. I've missed you too, now will you tell me where the Flock is?" I said. Ella grimaced, but tried to cover it up with a grin. If I wasn't so good at reading body language, I would've been fooled.

"What…" I said. "Wait, did they like, blow up half the house or something and they left to go get supplies to fix it or something?" I asked. I was partially kidding and partially serious.

"Uh… Not exactly…" said Ella. Her gaze shifted to everywhere but me. She shifted a little bit so her wings were loosely splayed across her back.

Wait, WINGS?

"WHERE DID YOU GET WINGS? Wait, do I really want to know?" I said.

"Probably not." said Ella.

"Ok, then tell me where the Flock is!" I said, starting to loose my patience, well, what little bit of patience that I've stored up from who knows how long ago.

"They left to fid Fang and bring him home so that you guys could be together again and you'd get better and you could be a whole Flock again! Don't kill me?" Ella squeaked.

Deep. Breaths. Deep. Breaths.

"Can you tell me where they are looking?" I said through clenched teeth, which I tried to portray as a smile, but it probably looked more like a feral snarl.

"New York City?" Ella said more as a question than an answer. Great. Now I won't even get to say goodbye! By the time I get back, I'll be a stone cold corpse in a hole in the ground!

All just to bring _Fang_ back! Like he could help! He caused this stupid mess! See what happens when you let the blind guy lead?

Their loss, but I really, really wanted to tell them goodbye. Change of plans, I'm just gonna leave a note on my bed explaining everything. At least they'll find my cold dead body. That is, if the buzzards don't eat it first. Plus, I really don't want my last memory of everyone I've ever cared about to be in a teary mess. I guess this is better, but still… I wrote the note and left it Fang's bed, the last place that everyone would look. Maybe.

I walked downstairs and snatched a water bottle. Before I could exit the house, Ella blocked the door. I could have easily pushed her out of the way, but the look on her face begged me to give her a second.

"You're not leaving. Not without me!" Ella said as she spread her speckled wings out to their full size, knocking over a chair in the process.

"Whoops!" she muttered.

"Ella, I just really need some time alone right now." I said.

"You've been alone for four weeks, Max! I want you to teach me how to fly!" Ella said. Hey, If I was gonna die, I might as well spend one of my last days teaching my sister how to fly.

I twirled the necklace with Fang's feather on it around my finger. Hey, just because Fang deserted me, doesn't mean that I have to throw this cool necklace away. Besides, Mom made it for me.

"Ok, Ella. I will, but then you have to let me go for a little spin alone, ok?" I said. Ella bobbed her head energetically.

"Yeah! Let's get started, but first, I'm hungry! Can we make some lunch?" Ella said. I remembered that I hadn't eaten, apparently, for four weeks. I didn't complain when Ella led me to the kitchen, where we used up a whole loaf of bread to make sandwiches.

I ate most of them, but Ella' appetite was now equal to that of a bird kid. Well, since she now was one, I guess it made sense. I still wasn't used to my once human sister to have wings! Sorry if you think that I'm weird!

We both walked out the back door and I took off. Man, it felt wonderful to be in the sky again. Ella tried jumping and pathetically flapping her wings in a futile attempt to take flight.

"It's ok, Ella! It only takes practice! Take a running start, then flap your wings! After a few miserable attempts, and quite a bit of chuckling on my part, Ella managed to fly up into the air.

She couldn't go very high, because he wind current was too strong and she wasn't a strong enough flyer. I told her that if she practiced, that she'd be able to fly as high as any Flock member in no time.

I taught her a few basic maneuvers to use in the air, then I showed her how to do a loop. I told her to practice it lower to he ground, so it wouldn't be as bad if she fell. I saw that the sky was getting dark, the sun was setting in the West.

"Well, Ella, That's good enough for today. I'm gonna head in for a shower." I said.

"Wait, weren't you going for a solo flight?" Ella asked as we tilted our wings downward.

"Yeah, I just want to get cleaned up first." I said as I landed gracefully on my feet. Ella, on the other hand, tumbled to a halt. She was laughing as she got up, so she was fine.

I walked in to my bathroom and took a long, well needed shower. When I got out, I blow-dried my hair and Ella laid out a perfectly, color coordinated outfit. I put on the outfit without complaint, even though the shorts did seem a little short and the shirt did have a low neckline. Whatever. I was just going to die in it.

My last outfit was picked out by my amazing fashionista sister after a day of teaching her how to fly. If only Nudge were here to do my hair and makeup. I'm totally just kidding about the hair and makeup part. I do wish Nudge were here.

I walked downstairs to find Ella doing something on her laptop.

"Hey, I'm setting up iChat. If you want to talk to the Flock, be back in an hour!" said Ella.

"What, so that I could tell them that their little 'mission' was a waste of time? I don't want to crush them. I'll wait until they come home for that." I said.

"Why do you say that it's a waste of time?" said Ella as she turned to look at me.

"Fang wouldn't solve the problem, he'd only make it worse. That is what he's good at, making bad situations worse. He always told me that he wanted to run away and disappear." I said.

"To just give up _my_ mission to save the world and run off to some faraway _fantasy_ place where we could be together and never have to worry again! Well, I guess the reality of it all got to him and he chickened out and left us! Left _me_! Fang doesn't love me Ella, I really wonder if he ever did." I ranted as I shot out the back door and flew into the sky.

I had it all figured out now. I had my heart played with, like some kind of sick toy, and now I was going to die alone. The person that I used to love, was going to be the one who didn't care.

I shoved my pitiful tears into an emotionless box, where I could keep them and remain strong for the last days of my life.

I used my warp speed to get to the place that I would be happy to call my last home. I saw it come up faster, then I fell. I fell from the sky and crash landed into my last resting place.

I was at my home with the hawks.

**Yes, I know it was sad, but I pinky promise that it will get happier in future chapters! But not of course, before someone expires. Muahaha! So review, or you won't see what happens! PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW!**


	13. Notes

**Hey! Today, I have the day off, so I'm pleased to bring you… chapter 13 of my 13****th**** story **_**on the thirteenth**_**! Thirteen is my lucky number, so this chapter is twice as lucky! If you didn't follow that, it means that there will be extra drama in this chapter! Here's a hint, someone leaves the Flock! (gasp!) **

**By the way, I've never used iChat in my life before so if there is anything inaccurate about it, sorry, but it's staying the way it is!**

**Disclaimer! Yeah… I'm not James Patterson is you haven't figured it out yet so…**

Normal POV

"Stupid piece of… hey it works!" mumbled Ella as she fiddled with the iChat camera.

_Message recorded. Video sent._ said a little pop up box.

_What video? What message? Where did this stupid thing send it?_ Ella thought irritably. Whatever.

Now, I wait for Iggy to log on…

Fang POV

_Ding _

The computer beeped, awaking me from my memories. I silently trudged over to the bag where the laptop was hidden. I then slid it out and sat down under a tree. I lifted the monitor part of the laptop up and I was illuminated by the bright, LED screen.

There was a new iChat message. I clicked on the iChat icon and opened up the new video message. Ella was off to the side of the screen and off to the other side was… Max…

But, she was supposed to be dying… It's not like I wanted her to die. I was happy that she was up and awake. But, if she was fine, I didn't have to return. The Flock could take my Flock to that special school where they could be happy, taught to read and stuff, and fed properly.

The video started.

"Hey, I'm setting up iChat. If you want to talk to the Flock, be back in an hour!" said Ella.

"What, so that I could tell them that their little 'mission' was a waste of time? I don't want to crush them. I'll wait until they come home for that." Max said. Wait, hold the phone, failure? How did she know if they would fail or not? They were trying to save her after all, how is that a waste of time?

"Why do you say that it's a waste of time?" said Ella as she turned to look at Max.

"Fang wouldn't solve the problem, he'd only make it worse. That is what he's good at, making bad situations worse. He always told me that he wanted to run away and disappear." Max said. Ouch. That hurt. That is so unfair! She was totally twisting what I said! I only wanted to let the kids have a semi-normal life where they could get away from moving around all the time!

"To just give up _my_ mission to save the world and run off to some faraway _fantasy_ place where we could be together and never have to worry again! Well, I guess the reality of it all got to him and he chickened out and left us! Left _me_! Fang doesn't love me Ella, I really wonder if he ever did." Max ranted as she shot out the back door and flew into the sky.

I was absolutely stunned. Angel was right. She didn't love me anymore. By the look on her face, she believed every word that she just said. I would know, I've seen her lie before, and I can tell when she's lying, even though other people can't.

My original plan was to let her get over me eventually, I'll always love her, but the Flock needed a leader more than I needed her. Or at least that's what I told myself.

I never dreamed that hearing her say that would hurt so much. Again I hear those people in the back who are calling me a wuss and telling me that I'm being so 'un-Fanglike'. You'd feel the same way if the one that you've loved forever totally crashed your heart into a thousand pieces.

I've faced more physical pain than anyone deserves to face in their lifetime. Let me tell you, this hurts worse.

I stared at the screen again.

Wait a minute… what's that?

I zoomed in on Max's head as it showed her bolting out the door at the end. The picture was grainy, but it was enough to make whatever was left of my heart to fall to the floor and break into an immeasurable amount of hopeless shards.

Past the wisps of her blond streaked brown hair, on the back of her neck was… an expiration date. Her expiration date.

_Oh no, no, it can't be true! She can't just, die!_ I thought fiercely. That really annoying voice of reason just had to say

_You can't fight an expiration date, no matter how hard you try._

I can't wait any longer. I have to go. I don't care if she does hate my guts. I have to see her again, and I'll do anything that I can to save her, even if she hates me for it. Like I said before, she's one in a million, she's the important one. According to the School, I'm easily replaced. Ask Dylan.

The common sense part of my brain told me to just let her die. She hates me, so it's not worth the long hours of flight just to watch her die. Well, sorry common sense, but I love her, even if she does hate me and I was gonna save her, even if it means that I have to die in the process. I was really hoping that it didn't include the dying part, but if it came to it, I would.

I scrawled a note on a piece of scrap paper from one of the bags and took a running start. With one powerful motion of my wings, I was lifted into the air. I was going home.

Normal POV

"What do you mean 'He's gone'?" said Gazzy. "I saw him under this tree an hour ago!"

"I told you, I did a mental scan and he wasn't within a mile radius!" said Angel.

"Speak English!" barked Gazzy.

"I am!" snapped Angel. "Just to make you shut the heck up, I'll look again!" said Angel as she closed her eyes and concentrated. She stiffened, but didn't day anything.

"Well…" said Courage impatiently.

"Besides us three, there are two other bird kids here." said Angel. Her face said that something didn't add up.

"So he's here?" Gazzy said more as a question than a conclusion.

"That's the weird part. The thoughts don't sound like his. They almost sound like…" Angel trailed off.

"Well spit it out!" Courage spat.

"Alright! The thoughts sound like Iggy's! But I made sure that there was no brain activity. He was, he is dead!" said Angel. She looked absolutely and utterly confused.

"Well, there's only one way to find out!" said Gazzy "Where are the readings coming from?"

"Right past those trees." said Angel. The trio of mutant bird kids left the camp of sleeping mutant misfits in search of the missing Flock members.

Angel crept closer and peered through a bush.

"Nudge… Nuuuudgeeee…" Iggy whispered in the infamous chatterbox's ear. "Wake up…"

Iggy sat still for a moment, pondering what to do next. After he woke up, Nudge fainted. Naturally. She was the drama queen.

"There's bacon…" said Iggy a little louder. Nudge shot out of unconsciousness.

"Bacon, where?" said Nudge excitedly as she looked around. Her grin faded when she realized that in fact, there was no bacon. Then she looked at who said it.

"IGGY!" Nudge screeched as she tackled Iggy in a hug. "You're alright! You're alive! Oh, I thought that I lost you! Did you hear anything that I said? OMG! We have to tell the Flock! I wish that you could see their faces when…" Iggy gently covered Nudge's mouth.

"I will see them Nudge." said Iggy.

"Wait what? I know that you can feel colors and everything, but I'm seriously confused here, how…" Iggy covered her mouth again.

"I'll be able to see them again because I can see you now." whispered Iggy. For once in her life, Nudge was at a loss for words. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, like a goldfish.

Iggy smiled. "At last, the great motor mouth is at a loss for words." Iggy announced.

"How is this possible?" said Angel from the bushes. Nudge and Iggy averted their gazes over to the bushes where three baffled bird kids lay in hiding.

"You guys can come out now." said Nudge gleefully. "OMG, guess what! I was sitting here, then all of a sudden, Iggy was awake, and I was so shocked, that I fainted! Then Iggy said that there was bacon! By the way that is SO mean to tell someone that there's bacon when there's not! That should be, like against the law or something! Anyways, I woke up and IGGY COULD…." Iggy swatted his hand over Nudge's mouth.

"Sorry, Nudge, but I want to tell them this part!" said Iggy. "Well…" started Iggy. Nudge licked the inside of his hand.

"EWWWW!" shrieked Iggy as he rapidly pulled his hand away.

"IGGYCANSEE!" Nudge blurted.

"What?" said Courage. Angel, who had been trying to pry apart their story from the beginning started shrieking happily.

"I hate being left out f this party!" said Gazzy angrily.

"Ditto for me!" said Courage, mimicking Gazzy's expression.

"I can see! Thanks for that Nudge, I really appreciated it!" said Iggy sourly as he shook his hand out, as if to shake the slobber off of it.

Nudge pouted. Everybody was congratulating Iggy on his regained sight and Nudge was explaining her theory on how Iggy regained his sight.

"I think that it happened like when you reboot a computer, so his brain reinterpreted everything and he regained his sight!" said Nudge, who was trying to act all smart and scientific to impress Iggy.

Apparently, he hadn't heard anything that Nudge had said before she passed out. So, Nudge had yet to tell Iggy her feelings for him.

"Not to kill everybody's joy here, but Fang is still missing." Courage said flatly.

Everybody's smiles faded, like the darkness of night at sunrise.

"He's what?" spat Iggy. "I knew he would run away from his problems! We should have never untied him from that tree! That dirty little…" now Nudge covered Iggy's mouth. That was backwards.

"Iggy, let's check this out before we jump to conclusions, ok? I think that we should look at the laptop first, but there's also…" Angel interrupted Nudge's endless stream of talking.

"Yeah, the laptop is the first place to look. That is, if he didn't take it. He knows that's what we use to track him with." said Angel.

"He better haven't of stolen it, or Max will never see his sorry face again! That I'll promise!" growled Iggy.

The group crept past the sleeping mutants and over to the tree where Fang was. The mutants enjoyed long hours of sleep, because the whitecoats would get them up every few hours to run tests. The Flock let them enjoy their sleep, since there wasn't much that they could do.

Sure enough, the laptop was under the tree.

"Well, he is either really dumb, or he doesn't care if we find him, or he was captured, or he was killed by Erasers, or he was abducted by…" Courage covered Nudge's mouth.

"let's check the laptop for clues." said Courage. Gazzy giggled.

"I feel like we're guest starring on Scooby Doo!" laughed Gazzy. Iggy cracked a smile and Nudge giggled with him Angel tapped away on the computer and Courage stared blankly at the laughing bird kids.

"What's a Scooby Doo?" asked Courage. She wasn't kidding. Gazzy looked at her sadly.

"You've never watched cartoons before?" asked Gazzy in awe.

"When you're trapped in a dog crate or being torn apart by Erasers, you don't exactly have time to watch TV!" said Courage. The Flock looked around uncomfortably.

"Well, I guess I have a lot to fill you in on!" said Gazzy as he started to tell Courage about his favorite TV shows.

"Uh, guys? I think I found something!" Angel said. Gazzy and Courage were in a serious conversation discussing the pros and cons of reality TV, so Nudge and Iggy were the only ones to scamper over.

The most recent thing that was clicked on was this video. I'm gonna watch it." said Angel as she played the video. The Flock watched openmouthed. The video ended, and it was silent, except for the faint voices of Gazzy and Courage by the campfire.

"Well, this does say a few things. One, is that Max is up and out of bed. Two, is that she hates Fang. Three, is that Fang is either gonna commit suicide, he's gonna run, or he's gonna try and change Max's mind." said Iggy.

"Well, what do you think that he did? Because I…" Nudge was, once again, interrupted.

"Angel, do you have any ideas?" said Iggy.

"I'm afraid of the answer. All I know is that we're iChat-ing Ella and we're boarding a plane tomorrow. We'll 'borrow' one if necessary." retorted Angel.

"What are we supposed to waltz up there and ask the nice pilot if we can steal his plane?" smirked Iggy.

"Yes, that's exactly what I intend to do." said Angel with a scary glint in her eyes.

After four hours of flight, Fang landed on the place hat he thought that he'd never return to, the Martinez house.

Fang knocked on the door. It was morning by now, and dawn was breaking over in the East.

A sleepy looking Dr. Martinez opened the door. She had bags under her eyes, like she hadn't slept all night and she had a cup of coffee in hand. Fang was relieved.

He knew that Max wasn't dead, because her mother wasn't all depressed or crying her eyes out.

"Is Max here?" said Fang. Dr. Martinez squinted as if she didn't believ what she was seeing.

"Fang?" she whispered. He nodded.

I… I can't believe that you're here! Already! Where's the Flock! Oh my, are they alright?" asked Dr. Martinez.

"They're fine. Where's Max?" said Fang as he shifted his wings on his back.

"Oh, well…" started Dr. Martinez.

"FANG!" screamed a familiar voice. Fang's gaze shot over to the direction where the voice came from. He heard running footsteps, then he was face to face with none other than Ella. Well, he was a lot taller than her, so it was more like face to chest.

"WHY DID YOU? Oh, never mind! Max is gone! She was really bad then she got up all of a sudden and wanted to go. Instead, she taught me to fly then went to fly and never came back! I tried to fly around to find her, but I can't go very far." said Ella. Man, she was a motor mouth too!

"Max. Is. What?" said Fang, who kept his voice steady.

"She's missing and I can't find her anywhere!" said Ella. They obviously had no idea where Max was so Fang left to her room for clues to her whereabouts.

"Fang, we've already looked there. Wait! She was in your room!" said Dr. Martinez. Fang sped off to his room.

Sure enough, the bed was un-made, proof that someone was sleeping in it recently. On the pillow, was a note.

Man, he was sick of notes.

After he read it, he knew where he had to go. The place where he said he would be in twenty years. That somehow, sparked a little hope that burned in his chest. Fang flew out the window to find the one he loved. He didn't have much time.

**Ok, maybe somewhat of a cliffy? If you review soon, I'll update! I PROMISE to update this week! That is, if I get reviews! ****J **


	14. Alone

**Yes, I hurried to update, so this chapter might not be as long as some of my other ones! Sorry, but I'm super busy during the week! I really prefer updating on weekends, but I try to update during the week any time that I can! :D **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max Ride and I really don't plan on it anytime soon.**

Normal POV

Another shaky breath caused Max's frail body to shudder.

_Man, Ari's death wasn't even close to being this dramatic or cliché! He just dropped dead! Of course, I'm Maximum Ride! Nothing, not even my stupid expiration date can be that simple!_ thought Max furiously as she hissed out an exhale. She didn't have many breaths left, she knew that much.

_Mark this down, Itex, or the School, or… whatever! The bane of your existence is about to die in a cave, alone, in the middle of nowhere, knowing that the one who she loves could care less whether she died or not! Are you happy now!_

Despite these thoughts being some of her last, Max didn't shed a single tear. Death would able her to escape all of the memories of Fang.

Her dream was somewhat accurate, maybe in some obscure way, she could have fought the expiration date, for the Flock. Her choice was death. With her luck, if she did survive, she would see Fang again, and he would have already moved on to one of his fan girls or a pretty mutant.

To her regret, she couldn't just push the feelings of affection and passion towards Fang away like she could push other emotions like fear or sadness into a box. No, she couldn't escape the feeling of love towards him away, no matter how hard she tried. She still loved him, she wanted them to be soul mates, and for a while, she believed that they were.

However, after Fang left, with her heart shattered, Max still loved him. The spiteful, and probably common sense part of her brain told her to hate Fang for what he did. Max tried to act like she did in front of Ella, so that maybe she'd convince herself to believe that she hated Fang, but all efforts were futile.

Max couldn't hate Fang no matter how hard that she tried. Fang was probably flying around with some trampy red haired female bird kid. He didn't care, and now she was going to die alone.

Maybe death would bring her peace and comfort from it all. As long as she could escape the pains of being a lonely, heartbroken, dying bird-human hybrid. Well, she was about to find out.

_Faster… I have to fly faster! Oh, why couldn't Max be the one with invisibility powers! I'm the one who needs super speed!_ Fang thought as he flew towards the home of the hawks.

In some weird way, he could _feel_ her presence in the cave. He was getting closer! But, her presence was fading faster and faster, like a scent in the wind.

Fang abruptly dived and landed in the entrance to the cave. The pebbles shifted under his combat boots as he skidded to a halt.

Fang sprinted past the hawks' nests until he had reached the back of the cave. There, an unmoving form of a frail, brittle bird kid laid.

Her beautiful were wings spread out under her back, like she had crashed and was too weak to pull her wings in. faint scratches and cuts ran along the sides of her legs and arms and face. Dirt from the floor of the cave was slightly smudged on her face, but other than that, she looked beautiful.

Her brown hair was glossy from being washed with a special, expensive shampoo. I blame that on Ella, not complaining, just pointing out. Her blond streaks in her hair really stood out. Her skin looked soft, smooth and clean. Her wings were shiny from a recent cleaning. Her cloths were a little skimpy, but Fang wasn't focused on that aspect of her appearance. He couldn't help but notice that was also Ella's doing.

He almost didn't recognize her, but she was most definitely his Max.

Fang knelt by her side.

_She can't be dead! Not yet! No, I had so much that I wanted to tell her! There was so much that we didn't do! She was so young. Ok, now that was just getting cliché and carried away, but I sure felt like it was appropriate!_ Fang thought as he grabbed her hand to feel her pulse. Thank God! She was still alive! The beating was faint, so he didn't have much time left.

"Max?" he whispered. Her beautiful, chocolate brown eyes flickered open. Her eyes darted around quickly, then rested on Fang's black clad figure.

"What are you doing here?" she said. He didn't detect any surprise, just tiredness. He could tell by the tone of her voice that she was tired of everything, tired of fighting, tired of pain, heartbreak and betrayal.

"I'm here! I came! I'm sorry I left. You don't know how much I wanted to stay!" said Fang. He never let go of her hand.

"Then you should've stayed. You promised! You lied! You promised that you'd never leave again! You lied to me!" Max croaked. Her voice cracked. She didn't sound angry though. She sounded betrayed and heartbroken.

"I know Max, I know. I just didn't want you to get hurt!" Fang whispered, as he heard her lungs wheeze for oxygen. Traitorous tears dripped down his cheeks. The unemotional, silent, brick wall, Fang cried. That was the first time Max had seen him cry.

"But you promised me, Fang. I trusted you, but you lied. You… promised…" Max whispered as her chest shuddered one last time and she was still. A calm look came over her face as her gorgeous brown eyes closed for the last time.

"No… no, Max, please stay!" Fang cried, the feeling of tears being unfamiliar and vulnerable.

"Max! I love you, I always have!" pleaded Fang. "WHY. CAN'T. ANYTHING. GO. RIGHT?" shouted Fang as he repeatedly punched the walls. With his knuckles bloody and furiously frustrated, he shoved his face in his hands.

His worst fear had become a reality. Max, the girl who he loved, died believing that he was a lying traitor, and he didn't even get to tell her goodbye. Worst of all, she died not loving him.

Little did he know, that Max died believing that Fang didn't love her.

**Well, I certainly was sad when I finished this! I almost cried! Well, I updated as fast as I could, and here's the result. Hey! I'm almost to 100 reviews! I've always dreamed of getting 100 reviews ever since I got my fanfiction account! **

**So, If I have 100 reviews before I post the next chapter, which will be this weekend, the next chapter will have love, hate sacrifice, depression, and pretty much every other Dramatic element that I can come up with! So if you review, Fax will be included! :D**


	15. Despair

**Hey, guess what? I HAVE 106 REVIEWS! 106! THANK YOU THANK YOU! As a reward, someone is returning to the Flock…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max Ride, If I did, Fang would be mine!**

_Previously…_

_His worst fear had become a reality. Max, the girl who he loved, died believing that he was a lying traitor, and he didn't even get to tell her goodbye. Worst of all, she died not loving him._

_Little did he know, that Max died believing that Fang didn't love her._

Normal POV

Fang furiously wiped the tears away from his eyes. It wasn't fair! Now he sounded like a little kid, life isn't fair. He of all people would know, after all, he just had to be the kid who was taken from his mom, was given wings, and tortured until Jeb freed him with the rest of the Flock.

Nothing could happen right.

Fang picked up Max's limp body and he stood at the cliff and looked over the edge. He wanted to jump off the cliff and forget about his wings. He hoped that he would die fast. Max would be gone, and he would always feel that huge, gaping hole in his chest, screaming that Max was dead.

There was one thing that he could do…

He had to, for Max.

Fang spread out his large, raven colored wings and took off, with Max's body in tow. What was with all of the death in the Flock? First Iggy, now Max! Technically, he died first, but he didn't stay dead! She was Max! She was indestructible, she was the one that Itex and the School cared about! That's what kept her safe from the expiration dates, or so he had thought.

With Max gone, he should lead the Flock. He was her predecessor. Now, if everything worked out right, that wouldn't be necessary. Sure, he wouldn't come out of it alive, but that was ok.

Fang made the mistake of looking down at Max's relaxed face. This was probably the only time that counted as her being truly relaxed. She was always worrying about something.

Her normal sun tanned skin was pale and cold. The eyes beneath her eyelids were lifeless. The last time that resembled this moment, was when Max had one of her brain attacks and fell from the sky. Fang swooped down and caught her. He thought that she was dying.

Only this time, she was really dead.

It took all of Fang's willpower not to cry. And believe me, he had a lot of that. He didn't need the Flock to see him all puffy eyed from crying. He would appear to be a wimpy cream puff.

He wasn't going to the Martinez house though. No, it would be too late to do anything by then. He was going to the place that he never wanted to see again, and he didn't need all of the whitecoats to see him teary eyed. They had never seen him cry before, and they wouldn't see him cry now.

Half an hour later, he had arrived at the prison-like building. 'Prison' was putting it nicely.

At the door near the back, Jeb was waiting. It was almost like he was expecting Fang to come. Was he getting that predictable? Whatever, he was going to do what he had to do.

Fang dived from the sky and over the tall, barb/razor wire infused fence. He landed on the desert sand with barely a sound. His glossy black wings folded neatly against his back, and he had a bad feeling that it was the last time that he would fly again.

He walked up to Jeb with his usual emotionless mask carefully set in place.

"Hello, Fang." said Jeb. Fang ignored the greeting and cut right to the chase.

"I know how you 'rebooted' Iggy somehow. Bring her back." said Fang in his trademark, emotionless tone.

"And what would we get in return for this? Bringing someone back to life isn't cheap." said Jeb.

"Me. You can do whatever you want to me. Just bring her back to life. But I have to know that you let her free. She has to get home safely." said Fang. Jeb was somewhat surprised. That's the most that he'd ever heard Fang say at one time.

"This is… not enough… We have no need for you…" said Jeb as he trailed off. Jeb saw a tiny flicker of emotion flicker through Fang's eyes before they became unreadable once again. Fang was desperate.

"She's your daughter! How could you just stand by and watch her die? I won't even fight, just let her live." growled Fang. Fang knew that he had to play the whole 'she's your daughter' card in order to save Max. Like he said before, he did what had to be done. Jeb looked pained, but didn't say anything.

"What kind of a father are you?" Fang said with as much disgust as he could muster before turning around.

That did it.

"Fang!"

Fang turned around to see Jeb, who looked like a mixture between anger and pain.

"Bring her inside, we'll bring her back to life." Fang hugged Max close to his chest one last time before he walked into the pure white building of torture.

The director watched Jeb lead Fang into a pure white room, with a steel operating table in the center.

Fang gently laid Max on the cold, metal table and quickly placed one last kiss on her forehead before turning to face Jeb.

Jeb flicked a light switch on the side of a wall that Fang didn't notice before. The anesthetic smell of cleaner burned his nose and he wanted to have a panic attack. Fang didn't show it on the outside. He was as cool and collected as ever.

Then, a white wall unexpectedly slid up into the ceiling to reveal a wall of flickering monitors and panels. Some of the screens were security cameras while others… others monitored the Flock.

There was a whole computer for each of the Flock members. One showed Iggy, another showed Nudge, another showed Gazzy talking to Courage, naturally, Angel was on a separate screen too. He didn't get it until he saw the last two screens. One screen showed him where he was now. Wow, his all black attire really stuck out in this pure white cesspool of evil. The last one had a black screen. The word 'Retired' was plastered on the screen.

_What the…_ Fang thought.

"This, Fang, is how you, or any of the other Flock members, dies." said Jeb. "However, it is also your life. So, to bring Max back to life, I simply reboot her computer." said Jeb. "Isn't it amazing?"

_Amazing? How in any way is this amazing! If the School has a problem with any of us, they can kill us with the touch of a stupid button!_ Fang thought agitatedly.

"It only can bring that person back to life if it is within an hour after death, or it won't work." Jeb explained as he pushed the 'restart' button on Max's computer. The machine whirred to life and Fang glanced over at Max. Then, there was a heart-stopping buzz.

The screen flashed a message across the screen before resuming it's old black façade. Fang had already read the words and apparently, Jeb had too.

The message had read

"Experiment expired. Unable to reboot."

It was too late. Max was gone… there was no hope of saving her. It was all too late. Despairingly, but with deadly swiftness, Fang smacked the shut down button on his computer. According to him, he had already shut down the moment that Max was deemed un-savable.

**Yes, you all probably hate me now, but I'll update asap! I swear! If you don't review, you will always wonder how this fic really ends! Muahahaha!**

**Read**

**Enjoy**

**eValuate**

**Interpret**

**Emphasis**

**Words!**

**!**

**My little poem, so heed it and Review!**


	16. Gone

**Hey! Thanks to all of you who reviewed and added me to fav. Stories/ subscribe! **

**You guys rock! Anyways, here's the new dramatic chapter! I hope you guys enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I've been saying the same thing since the first chapter!**

_previously…_

_It was too late. Max was gone… there was no hope of saving her. It was all too late. Despairingly, but with deadly swiftness, Fang smacked the shut down button on his computer. According to him, he had already shut down the moment that Max was deemed un-savable._

Normal POV

"Fang!" snapped Jeb as he abruptly shoved Fang away from the control panel. But the damage had already been done. Fang's computer slowly faded to a black screen.

Fang's eyes were drooping shut, like he had injected with a tranquilizer dart. However, this tranquilizer dart was one that Fang would never wake up from.

Fang POV

After I punched the button to make myself expire, I staggered over to Max. If I had to die here, I wanted the last thing that I saw to be her. I'd want her to be the last thing that I saw if I died anywhere, really.

My eyes were involuntarily shuttering closed, but I fought it long enough to make it by Max's side. It felt like everything was moving through Jell-O. The last thing that I saw was Max's beautiful hair framing her face like a halo.

_Goodbye, Max. I love you._

Then there was no more.

Normal POV

_No problem, I just have to reboot their computers. There must have been an error with Max's computer. If Fang would have waited, I could have tried to reboot the computer again. _Jeb sighed.

_Fang was never one to take no for an answer. If Max would have saw that, she would have no doubt that Fang loved her. It's a pity that she died thinking that Fang didn't love her._

Jeb rebooted both Fang and Max's computers. Fang's computer glowed to life. Max's only showed the same error message as before, then it shut down. Jeb quickly tinkered with the wires and restarted Max's computer. It whirred to life, and Jeb almost jumped for joy. The director would have killed him if she had died for real. After all, this was a test of dedication between Max and Fang.

The director had many more tests planned for Max and Fang, and she'd hate it if the subjects died before all of the testing was complete.

Personally, Jeb was happy that Max was alive, after all, she was his daughter.

Fang's eyes flickered open as his screen once again held live footage of him. His obsidian eyes darted over to Max's monitor, than back to her.

"Is she going to be ok?" asked Fang in his nonchalant tone. On the inside, he was burning with anxiety.

"Yes, Fang, she's fine. Watch." said Jeb. Max's chocolate brown eyes opened and Fang almost smiled. He wouldn't give Jeb the satisfaction of seeing him smile, so he kept his emotions to himself, as usual.

Max sat up and looked around.

"Where am I?" she whispered as she flexed her arms, looking not at all fearful.

"The School." said Jeb. Max didn't look around fearfully, get goosebumps, or even cringe.

There was definitely something wrong. Even he wasn't that good at hiding his feelings about the School.

Fang was good at hiding his emotions. He'd been doing it his whole life. Max, was almost as good at hiding her emotions as he was… usually… most of the time… Ok, she only hid her emotions in front of the rest of the Flock, and occasionally hid her emotions from him.

However, he could always tell when she was hiding something. Now… she was perfectly serious.

"Fang, we promise to let her go, but just in case, you have to put these on." said Jeb as he flashed a pair of weird looking handcuffs.

"They'll shock you with 100 volts if you go anywhere we don't want you to go. I've got the button to set it off, so you won't be shocked unless you disobey us." said Jeb.

_I'm totally gonna get zapped. Me and following ruled don't go together._ thought Fang._ Plus, who says that he won't zap me when he feels like it?_

"Fang, you have to put them on." said Jeb. "If you don't, I can just as easily turn Max's computer off."

Fang stared at Jeb, his obsidian eyes smoldering. Jeb, couldn't look at Fang's almost black eyes any longer and he turned his gaze to the floor. No one could blame him, looking into Fang's eyes was like looking into an endless, emotionless abyss that could seep right through your very soul.

"Look, Fang. You have to trust me. If you want Max to be free, you have to trust me." said Jeb, who was still looking at the polished white marble floor.

Fang had no choice now. Max had to be free. She'd be better off dead than stuck in this place again. Fang silently snatched the handcuffs and snapped them on.

Max, who was now out of her daze, spoke again.

"Who's he?"

Fang's heart dropped into the pit of his stomach.

"Max, it's me Fang. Don't you remember me?" Fang said as he brushed a strand of her blonde-streaked hair out of her eyes. Max scooted back, clearly freaked out by Fang's affection.

"What the heck do you think you're doing? Don't touch me!" snarled Max. Fang was heartbroken. I mean seriously, totally reclused from the world, type of depressed.

Fang sank to the floor in utter defeat. She didn't even remember him. He'd rather her hate him and remember him than completely forget him an everything that they ever were.

Jeb had a pained expression on his face. This was too much. Even with Fang's usual emotionless façade firmly in place, Jeb could tell that he was heartbroken. Jeb knew as well as anybody that heartbreak was much worse than any sort of physical pain.

He had practically raised Fang after all. He remembered the day that Fang had practically told him that he loved Max. Jeb knew good and well that Fang had loved Max all the way back to when he and Max were still in cages.

_Fang was quietly watching Max soar through the sky, playing with Angel and Gazzy. Max's ivory and brown speckled wings rushed right past the window as she shot off to catch the giggling Angel. Fang was infatuated with Max's every movement, every wing stroke, and every expression._

_He was ten years old at the time and it had been only about a month after Jeb had freed the Flock from the School._

_Jeb was walking down the hall when he spotted a black clothed figure looking out the window. _

_One thing that Jeb had learned about Fang was that as soon as Fang got to pick his first set of real clothes, he was obsessed with the color black. _

_Maybe Fang had liked black because it was the polar opposite of the pure whiteness of the School that he was used to. Maybe he liked how the color matched his personality, his wings, hair, and eyes. However, it was probably when Max told Fang that she liked how he looked in black when they first went shopping that convinced Fang to fall for the color._

_Whatever the reason, Jeb quietly walked up behind Fang and watched Max pursue Gazzy and Angel in a playful race in the sky._

_Fang snapped his head back, as if the person behind him would harm him, but when he saw that it was Jeb, Fang's gaze returned to Max._

"_She's beautiful, isn't she?" said Jeb. If Fang was startled by the sudden words, he didn't show it._

_Jeb had also noticed that Fang was always hiding his emotions. Maybe it was something that a whitecoat had done to him when he was younger, but for whatever reason, Fang was as silent and emotionless as a brick wall._

"_Yeah, she's amazing." said Fang truthfully. Jeb was shocked. He had barely heard the boy utter a word, let alone a full sentence._

"_Why is she different from everybody else. You seem to think that she is more…special than the others." said Jeb. Without moving his gaze from Max outside the window, Fang answered._

"_I…I really like her a lot. I promised that I'd protect her, because the way that I like her is different… stronger." said Fang. The Flock was amazing when it came to learning how to speak English, but they were still a little rusty at it._

"_How long have you… liked her?" asked Jeb as he glanced over at Fang quizzically. For almost a full minute, Fang didn't answer. Jeb thought that Fang wasn't going to answer, but surprisingly, he did._

"_Ever since she appeared in the cage next to mine." said Fang softly as Max did a corkscrew in the air._

"_So, are you really going to protect her?" asked Jeb as he started for the door._

"_Yes, I will." said Fang, who finally looked Jeb in the eyes. Jeb had to look away, Fang's gaze was too unnerving._

_Without a doubt, the directors plan was working. Fang had chosen Max as his soul-mate. It was only a matter of time before Max chose whether or not to return Fang's affection._

A lifetime of loving someone, through thick and thin, and than all of that being shattered in a matter of seconds is enough to completely break a person inside, if not drive them to insanity.

"Max, you're going to go home." said Jeb smoothly.

"How's she supposed to remember the way home?" Fang snarled. See-ya, emotionless Fang. "She can't even remember my name!" much to Fang's displeasure, his voice had cracked on that last sentence.

"Her soul-mate will guide her home." said Jeb coolly as a blond head poked in through the door.

"Hi, Max, ready to go home? Hey Fang. Nice bracelets." said Dylan. Fang growled. "Come on, Max. Let's go home." said Dylan. Max timidly stepped toward Dylan. Dylan held out his hand and Max took it. Fang was seething mad. How dare he take advantage of her memory loss like that?

"Who are you?" asked Max.

"I'm Dylan your boyfriend, now come on, hurry!" said Dylan. "Max, go on ahead, to he red exit sign, I'll catch up." called Dylan as Max sprinted down the corridor.

"You're not her boyfriend and you know it you…"spat Fang, but before he could finish, a jolting pain shot through his body. Those stupid handcuffs. This was really like prison.

"Don't worry, Fang. I'll take good care of her." Dylan licked his perfect lips.

"Don't you touch her! I'll kill you!" snarled Fang with as much ferocity as he could muster amongst the lingering pain from the electric jolt.

"What are you gonna do about it, jailbird?" snickered Dylan. Get it, jailbird?

"Lame sense of humor, looser!" snapped Fang.

"Hey, at least I didn't desert her and leave her for dead! You almost killed her, you do realize that? You can't do anything right!" Dylan snarled.

"I left because I loved her, you traitor! I…" started Fang.

"Dylan, where are you?" said Max from down the hall.

"I'm coming!" shouted Dylan. Dylan shot Fang a mock salute as he ran down the hall to catch up with Max. Fang's super hearing picked up on their conversation from down the hall.

"Dylan, who was that guy wearing all black?" asked Max.

"Him? He's nobody. He was a traitor, so it's better off if you forget all about him, Sweetheart." said Dylan. Fang heard doors open, slam then there was no more noises after that.

Fang's blood was boiling with anger, only _he_ could call Max sweetheart! It was his nickname for her!

But mostly, Fang was in despair. Max didn't remember him and Dylan would probably convince her that he was some sort of traitor or something. He would probably never see Max again, and all of Fang's hopes of being rescued by the Flock left with Max's memory.

Fang poked his head out of the doorframe and saw two flying figures flying to the Martinez's house.

Max was gone, and he was here, alone and forgotten. Jeb whistled, and two Flyboys, not Erasers, came and dragged Fang off down the hall.

He didn't even bother to put up any resistance, because everything that he ever fought for was gone. Now, he had nothing to think about but the throbbing pain of his broken soul.

**I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It's sad, but before you kill me, I give you a promise that it will get better… eventually! :D Review, and I'll update faster!**


	17. Promises

**Hey guy! Thanks for the reviews! Again, sorry for the depressing turn that the story has taken, but don't fear, It'll all get better in the end! R&R**

**This chapter was brought to you by " A Year Without Rain" by Selena Gomez and the Scene. I love that song and it totally inspired this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Fang and the Flock, do you seriously think that I would be sitting here typing a chapter on Microsoft Word? I think not!**

_Previously..._

_Max was gone, and he was here, alone and forgotten. Jeb whistled, and two Flyboys, not Erasers, came and dragged Fang off down the hall._

_He didn't even bother to put up any resistance, because everything that he ever fought for was gone. Now, he had nothing to think about but the throbbing pain of his broken soul._

Fang POV

They upgraded me to a dark, windowless cell that's about the same size as a closet. I feel so important. Hey, it's better than a stupid Kanine Kamper.

Like I care. I'm stuck in this place until the day I die. Maybe if Jeb ever takes pity on me, he'll let me expire… permanently. Every second is more painful than all of the tortures that the whitecoats can come up with put together.

She was right. I promised her that I wouldn't leave her. Now she's off with that butthead Dylan and he's probably gonna lie to the whole Flock about what happened to me.

I really wish that I didn't make that promise, because I couldn't guarantee that I could keep it. I should've known better. Her last words rand through my head.

"_You promised…"_

Those words reminded me of a similar promise that I made long before that.

_I was sleeping in my dog crate back at the school when I was two years old. I felt a pressure on my hand, and my eyes shot open. My eyes darted around the room, looking for any signs of whitecoats with syringes or snarling Erasers._

_All I saw was a beautiful girl holding my hand in her sleep. My taunt muscles relaxed as I realized that the pressure on my hand was Max unknowingly tightening her grip on my hand sleep._

_I studied her as she slept, because I've never seen another person like her before. Especially someone as amazing as her. Even in her sleep, she wasn't fully relaxed. Her eyelids were shut, and her eyes were moving rapidly back and forth beneath them. Her grimy brown hair had little blond streaks in it. Her wings were a stunning blend of ivory and chocolate brown._

_Max sighed in her sleep and her grip tightened just a fraction of a degree. I smiled and held on to her hand. Wait, smiled? What is up with me lately?_

_Just then, the doors opened with a flash of bright light and a loud *BANG!*_

_Max's eyes shot open and her muscles tensed, ready to fight. However, she did not let go of my hand. I also prepared to fight. They weren't taking her so easily._

_A smug whitecoat strode in to the room and was flanked by too snapping Erasers, who were fully morphed. They were prepared to fight. Well, so was I._

"_Isn't she simply amazing? She'll make the perfect weapon." said the whitecoat coolly. _

_Max hissed and snapped at the whitecoat._

"_Now, now. Don't be like that. You can't grow up to be a perfect assassin or whatever we want you to be if you aren't disciplined." said the whitecoat as he snapped his fingers._

_The two Erasers stepped forward, their mouths set in malicious grins._

"_It's time for your testing, Maximum." said the whitecoat. The Erasers opened the cage doors and attempted to pull Max out of her cage. She was snapping, snarling and kicking._

_I never let go of her hand and she never let go of mine._

"_Let her go, you freak of a failure!" shouted the whitecoat when he noticed that I was holding on to Max._

"_If you don't let go, Maximum, I'll kill him. Nobody will care, anyways. He was simply a test run. A mere example to see how well an Avian-human hybrid would turn out. Now that we have you, the ultimate, maximum version of a human-avian hybrid, there's no need for him, or any of the others for that matter." said the whitecoat as he aimed a gun at me._

_Max glanced desperately at the whitecoats, then me._

'_I'm better off dead than in this place. Let him kill me.' I told her fiercely with my eyes. Somehow, Max understood and she defiantly held on to my hand. I wouldn't let them take her, even if they killed me for it._

_The whitecoat put on a grim expression._

"_Fine, Maximum. If you choose to let him die, that's fine."_

_I prepared to be shot and I looked at Max one last time. She tried to let go a number of times, so the whitecoat would leave with her and not hurt me, but my grip was to strong._

_The whitecoat cocked the hammer on the gun back. Apparently, Max didn't want me to die, because she shrieked_

"_Fang!" and leaped in front of me. The Erasers tried to tear her from my grasp, but they couldn't._

_I yanked Max out of the way and the whitecoat prepared to shoot. Strange enough, his head cocked to the side, as if he was listening on something in his ear._

"_Well, it's your lucky day, you infernal piece of filth! You have been privileged to fight with Maximum Ride over here." said the whitecoat. He seemed a little disappointed that he didn't get to kill me._

_The whitecoat whistled in a few more Erasers and they dragged Max and me to a large, you guessed it, white room. I still never let go of her hand._

"_Now, you two are to exhibit your superior fighting skills by fighting against each other, remember, no matter how tempting, you can't kill each other. At least not yet." said the whitecoat. This whitecoat was strange. He actually spoke directly spoke to us, not like the others who treated us as if we were some sort of dumb animal._

_Anyways, I was so not going to fight her. Nope. My promise was to protect her, not to hurt her!_

_I glared at the whitecoat and stubbornly stood next to Max. Max mimicked my gesture._

"_Fine then." snapped the whitecoat like a pouty toddler. He pulled some sort of remote out of his pocket and pressed the little, cliché red button. A metal door opened and about twenty fully morphed adult Erasers stormed in, as malicious and blood thirsty as ever._

_The whitecoat fled like the puny human he was and ran out the door before the first Eraser could throw his first lame insult. Sure, great adult skills. Leave the two year olds to fend off the flesh devouring monsters, while you and your loony white-coated buddies laugh and drink coffee!_

_Max tensed her muscled, ready to pounce. I also was ready to fight. _

"_Let's pluck these birdies and eat them!" shouted one Eraser. Lamo. Whatever. The dude with the larger muscles can make all of the lame jokes he wants if he has half a dozen goon friends to help him._

"_Oh look, this one has a girlfriend!" cackled an Eraser. "Maybe we should keep this one She's so… pretty!" The Eraser stroked Max's cheek with his clawed hand._

_I snarled. Max snapped at his fingers._

"_Oh!" said one Eraser as they all formed a circle around us. "I like them feisty." Without warning, he slugged Max across the face. "But not too feisty."_

_I growled better than any Eraser as I tackled the Eraser that hit Max. I got lucky, and took him by surprise. I jumped up and down on his chest, like a kid on a trampoline and I heard a few ribs crack. I accidentally stepped on his windpipe, and crushed it. The Eraser went still._

_The other Erasers looked at me with a mixture of hate and shock._

"_But they told me that they couldn't kill!" complained an Eraser. Well, for one that's stupid, who believes a whitecoat? Secondly, that was before they hurt Max. I glanced over at her._

_That freak had hit her on the temple, so she was out like a light. At the time, I was two years old, like I said before, so I believed that she was dead._

_I was snarling, filled with bloodlust and boiling over the top with hate. There was, without a doubt, murder written all over my eyes. I really wanted to kill every dang thing in this horrible place._

_I was usually levelheaded. This, all of sudden thirst for blood scared me. I decided that I'll consult myself about the mood swings later. Right now, I was gonna kill them all._

_The first Eraser lunged at me from one direction, while his buddy came at me from the opposite direction, both of them at full speed. This batch of Erasers was extra stupid or something, because at the last second, I leaped out of the way, and the two idiots barreled past me and rammed heads with each other._

_Three down, like fifteen more to go. The rest of the fighting seemed to be a blur of red, fur, punched, kicks, teeth and claws because the next thing I remember is kneeling next to Max, with twenty bloody, dead or dieing Erasers scattered around me._

_Maybe the adrenaline hadn't worn off or something, because I managed to haul Max over to the door. I banged furiously at the cold, heavy steel doors._

_Miraculously, the door opened, and I was met by six or seven various open-mouthed whitecoats._

"_But.. But… that's impossible! All of our statistics say that it's 176334567 to .001 chance that subject 13 could defeat two lupine-human hybrids, let alone twenty!" stuttered a whitecoat._

_The rest were silent as Max and I were dragged to our cages. My white cotton pants were torn, from an Eraser claw, but there wasn't a mark on me. I scooted my cage next to Max's. She was still out cold._

_She couldn't be dead. She was my first and only friend. She was the only living thing ever to show me any sort of affection. I'd only knew her for a day, and they killed her._

"_Max?" I whispered, forbidding tears to come to my eyes. I reached my scrawny arm out, and stroked the top of her hand._

_Suddenly, she reached out and grasped hold of my hand._

"_Max!" I said. Her eyes fluttered open. She snarled and shot up, as if expecting to be surrounded by Erasers or whitecoats. __When__ she saw me, her eyes softened and her snarl turned into a look of confusion._

"_Fang." she said softly. On some weird impulse, My arm reached over and I gingerly touched the spot on her head where a purple knot was starting to form. She flinched, and my hand shot back. However, she grabbed my hand and held on._

_I had kept my promise to protect her, even when it seemed hopeless, and I somehow survived. I would always keep that promise until the day I don't come out of it alive._

From that point on, I knew that we would always be friends. And one day, I hoped that we would be more than that. She never did remember that I defeated twenty Erasers by myself when I was two. Now, with her memory gone, she never will.

Normal POV

The Flock, and the assorted freed mutants were aboard the plane. The mutants buzzed with nervous excitement. Gazzy, Nudge and Angel kept some of the younger mutants occupied.

Iggy walked over to the plane's bathroom. He looked at his reflection in the mirror. Yep. He looked in the mirror. He loved his ability to see.

He checked the back of his neck and looked for the expiration date. It was gone like a bad nightmare.

He couldn't believe his luck. Good things _never_ happened to anyone in the Flock! That was just life.

Not only did Iggy's expiration date disappear, but he could _see_! His dreams had come true! No longer would he need someone to describe things to him! He could see them for himself!

It seemed too good to be true, like the kind of good that came before something horrible happened. He just hoped that nothing bad happened, but of course, it would. He didn't know what to expect, he just knew that something awful was looming in the not so distant future.

He was right.

**Thanks for reading :D I love reviews! So by all means, review! Ideas are more than welcome! I really use them, I'll ask permission to use them if I do though. Please give me ideas, praise, and…flames… if it's terrible, than flame… Flames just fuel my never dieing hate for Dylan.**


	18. Painless

**:D Thanks for the reviews, in this chapter… the Flock finally comes home! I didn't spoil the surprise, so don't worry and read the new chapter! :D**

**Disclaimer: I heart Fang! Whops, did I just say that out loud? Uh oh… AHHHH! Max is trying to KILL MEEE! Read and review! Max, put the steak knives down! I meant I like Fang as a **_**friend**_**! (Not) Help me..**

Normal POV

At…

_A place that should remain nameless…_

"Land! Oh, sweet land!" shouted Nudge as she shot out of the cramped plane. Nudge kissed the ground and Iggy rolled his eyes.

The Flock had already dropped off the freed mutants at the special school that was originally made for the Flock.

There was a few tears shed between Angel, Nudge and some of the young mutants, because Angel and Nudge had become quite attached to some of the mutants, and they liked being considered some of the eldest members of the group for a change.

Nudge and Angel promised to visit soon, and the flock was safely flying home. Iggy tried to tell the rest of the Flock that they could fly to Arizona with their own wings much faster than this motorized sardine can could.

Despite the Flock's claustrophobia, the group decided to chill out on the plane. Then, once the plane landed, they would put their 2% Avian DNA to good use and fly home to the Martinez house.

Gazzy, however, begged and pleaded that Courage would stay and travel with the Flock. Iggy did what he thought that Max would do, which was accepting Courage into the Flock.

Once the Flock was out of the plane, they took off on their own wings. Angel was bored, so she decided to just respectively peek into everyone's thoughts.

Gazzy was thinking about Courage, and Courage was thinking about…Gazzy? Wow, her brother managed to find himself a girlfriend. Max had better save the world soon, because the day the Gasman gets a girlfriend is the day the world ends.

Nudge was thinking about…Iggy. Poor Nudge. She was really in a hard place. She really couldn't begin to comprehend why not one, but two winged girls would go after _Iggy_! Well, finding a winged boy was hard to do…

Iggy was thinking… a lot of things. Huh. Who would've thought that Iggy would be _thinking,_ especially about more than one thing at the same time.

First he thought about Max, and how he would be happy that she would take the lead, because leading really tired him out. He wanted to go back to being the goofy pyromaniac.

Then, he had a flicker of fear that Max would reject Fang, and she'd die, and Fang would run away again. Iggy thought about numerous ways to kick Fang's butt, because he forgot to do that back in New York.

Then Iggy thought about…_ ANGEL, GET OUTTA MY HEAD!_

Oops.

Got caught. Now Iggy's mental blocks were up. Now back to making shapes out of the clouds…

_An hour later…_

"We're hoommeeee!" sang Nudge as the Flock strode in through the back doors.

"You're home!" squealed Ella as she gripped in a huge, flock sized hug. After a short amount of pleasantries, compliments on Ella's new wings, and Ella's introduction to Courage, Iggy didn't beat around the bush.

"Ella, where's Max and Fang?" asked Iggy. The Flock looked eagerly at Ella. Ella reached into her designer jacket, and pulled a crumpled, tear stained piece of notebook paper out for the Flock to see. Ella couldn't hold her tough girl act together any longer, and broke down into sobs.

The letter read…

_Hey guys, sorry to leave on short notice, but the last memories I want to have , are those of you with smiling faces, not tear streamed faces. Just to let you guys know, I've given up on crying, because I want the last moments of my life to be like… well, normal me. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm almost expired. Don't freak, Iggy, as long as you at least consult Angel, you guys will be fine. Please let Ella into the Flock. Oh, and one more thing, whatever you do, don't let Fang back into the Flock. Don't cry, because there's nothing you could've done. _

_Fly on and bye forever,_

_Max _

_P.S. when you get here, I'll probably already be dead, but I'm at the Hawk's Cave if you need me._

The whole Flock was too shocked to comprehend what the letter was saying. They all (except Ella) gaped at the letter. After all they did, it didn't matter anyways. Max would die; and there was nothing that they could do about it.

"When did she leave?" Iggy managed.

"Yesterday. Fang came not to long after, and flew off after her. I would've gone too, but I'm not an experienced enough flier and I wouldn't make it. Plus, I don't even know where the Hawk Cave is. Fang hasn't come back either." Ella sniffled.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to get her, alive or…" Iggy trailed off.

"Dead." Nudge choked out. The Flock, including Ella, flew silently to he Hawk Cave. Ella was ecstatic that she made it to the cave without falling from the sky, but was devastated to find the cave empty.

"Maybe she didn't make it all the way here! She could've been captured, or shot by some crazy poacher, or eaten, or she fell from the sky, or…" Nudge didn't finish and burst into tears.

"Or Fang took her." said Angel flatly.

"If he did I'll…" growled Iggy.

"My sister, I… she's gone!" sobbed Ella. Iggy held on to Ella, trying to calm her from her hysterics.

"Well, It's no good staying here. We'll go to the house, eat, then come back tomorrow to check for evidence." said Courage.

"I agree." Gazzy chimed in. Of course. Iggy reluctantly agreed. The kids needed a real bed. He wouldn't mind a bed himself. However, the longer they waited, the faster the clues to Max's whereabouts faded away.

The Flock took off into the sky. With a teary silence, the Flock once again reached home. Dr. Martinez embraced the Flock and insisted that she would cook dinner; Mexican food.

Nobody complained. Gazzy and Courage left to play a videogame while Angel and Nudge had permission to go through Ella's magazine collection.

Ella, who was still extremely distraught over the loss of her sister remained outside. Iggy stayed behind with Ella.

"Are you gonna be ok?" asked Iggy after a long silence and Ella's sniffled cries.

"My sister is either dead, dieing or kidnapped, the Flock is probably gonna fall to pieces, Fang's gone, and I don't know what's happened to my sister! Oh, did I mention that I have wings? Other than that I'm just peachy!" said Ella, whose amount of sarcasm surprised Iggy.

"Whoa, take it easy. It's gonna be fine." said Iggy. Total lie.

"You're a really bad liar." said Ella as she sat next to Iggy. Iggy smirked.

"Hey, I resent that!" Iggy complained, but he was still smiling, so Ella knew that her last comment wasn't bothering him. It was silent again.

"Um, Ella?" started Iggy. His wings, which were considerably larger than her own, shifted.

He looked right into her eyes.

"OMG, Iggy, you can see! I mean without a white background! Oh, how did it happen? I'm so.." Ella jabbered jubilantly. However, Iggy cut her off… by pressing his lips against hers.

I don't know who was more shocked, Ella, or Nudge, who was crying and bolted back into the house.

_At the School…_

"Look, this experiment doesn't react to any sort of pain! Did they do some sort of testing on his sensory nerves?" asked a female whitecoat with long blond hair, and thick round geek glasses.

"No, it's never been recorded. Be sure to mark it down. This is very interesting. Very interesting indefinitely. The Director will be quite pleased." said a scrawny, brown haired whitecoat.

The 'experiment' was curled into a ball. His pitch black wings, that once glistened in the sun, were now dirty and grimy. His scarred arms showed multiple bruises, scars, and injection wounds.

The whitecoats plunged another large syringe into his arm, but he didn't feel any pain. No sort of numbness overcame him. Pain. Pain of the worst sort throbbed through every genetically enhanced cell in his body. However, it was nothing physical that tormented every millisecond of his agonized life. No, the emotional pain of reiving every memory he'd ever lived through with Max, which was pretty much every moment in his life, was more than he could bear.

_These memories. Make them stop. Max… Max. Max is gone…gone forever with Dylan…_

_Let me die. Escape…escape Max…Max…_

Fang's almost incoherent thoughts were soon overpowered with the next memory. Fang had retreated as deep into himself as possible, and was tortured by himself.

"The experiment is going well… let's not hope it goes too well, we need more data before we abort any projects." said the Director.

Fang didn't see or hear the Director in the room, or at all for that matter. His thoughts and soul were locked inside him so tight, that Angel couldn't even break in.

Fang might've closed himself off from the world too well, because now there might not be a way out. His sanctuary from the physical pain had become the torture chamber of his emotional pain, and now he couldn't break free.

_Max… Max…_

Iggy broke away from his kiss with Ella.

"Whoa…" they said in unison. Iggy looked at the sky, with his arm around Ella, and he saw two flying figures.

"Oh, man! Those are too clumsy to be Max and Fang! Erasers! Ella, go hide, and tell the others to get ready to fight." ordered Iggy.

**Yay! It's extra long, and I'm done with the chapters, any suggestions, questions, or comments are welcome! I'll update soon! :D That is, if I get reviews!**


	19. Family

**Sorry, it's been a while, but school's really starting to catch up with me! Anyways, here's the long awaited chapter, and it's less depressing, I swear! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max Ride… Yet, but with James Patterson out of the way… never mind…**

_Previously…_

_Iggy broke away from his kiss with Ella._

"_Whoa…" they said in unison. Iggy looked at the sky, with his arm around Ella, and he saw two flying figures._

"_Oh, man! Those are too clumsy to be Max and Fang! Erasers! Ell, go hide, and tell the others to get ready to fight." ordered Iggy._

**Normal POV**

Ella ran into the house and Nudge, Gazzy, Courage, Ella, and Angel scurried out of the house. They prepared for a fight.

"Ella, what are you doing? You're supposed to be inside!" said Iggy.

"You heard Max in the letter, I'm part of the Flock now! You can't always protect me, so at least let me learn how to fight!" Ella shot back. Iggy didn't feel like arguing, so he resumed watching the looming figures intently.

However, the sun was in their eyes, so they didn't get a good look at the mysterious mutant figures until they had landed. The figures didn't show any signs of attacking, instead, they approached.

"Max? Dylan?" whispered Nudge. Nudge, and the rest of the young Flock members ran to hug Max in a Flock sized hug.

Iggy, however looked down at Dylan. Dylan was tall, taller than Fang even. However, he wasn't taller than Iggy.

Iggy's sky blue eyes stared coldly into Dylan's Caribbean sea colored eyes. Dylan didn't shrink back like any sane person would do.

Iggy was usually a carefree, happy-go-lucky kind of guy. Being the leader of the Flock and staring death in the face had changed him. Now, Iggy's cold, suspicious glare was almost as scary as Fang's. Close, but still, no one could be as scary as Fang.

"So, where were you? I thought you chickened out and left us." said Iggy.

"I'll admit. I was mad. It's not easy being told that you weren't wanted in the world by the one person that you really…" Dylan trailed off. Iggy felt bad for the guy. He didn't show it, but the guy had it hard. He was a rapid growing, eight month old super bird freak that's soul purpose in life was to be paired with Max, who was already taken. The guy was seriously gonna need some therapy.

"Whatever, I took a short flight to get away from everything, when the school shot me down. I tried to fight, but they shot me with some weird, extra strength tranquilizer, and I was out. When I woke up, the whitecoats were dragging me off to one of their wacky experiments. I fought my way out of that, found Max screaming in some room, and escaped with her." said Dylan.

Iggy looked at Dylan skeptically.

"You fought your way out of the School, and Max just happened to be on your way out, conveniently unguarded, and you just took her and flew home?" smirked Iggy, who wasn't buying it.

"Hey, I gave you the short version. Max is alright and somehow, she didn't expire. Now, can we focus on Max please?" said Dylan with a little impatience.

Max, who was enveloped in a full, Flock hug, pushed out and snarled.

"Who are you?" she hissed with so much hostility, Iggy cringed.

The Flock took a few steps back.

"What did you do to her?" snarled Iggy as he lifted Dylan off the ground by his shirt.

"Hey, I didn't do anything! The… whitecoats did something to her!" snapped Dylan. Iggy reluctantly dropped Dylan.

"Flock meeting." Iggy called as everyone filed over. "And that doesn't include you!" Iggy said to Dylan as the Flock huddled together.

"Ok, what the heck is going on here? Angel, please tell me whether or not this guy is full of baloney!" ssaid Iggy. The other Flock member nodded in agreement and gazed over at the seven year old mind reader.

"Yeah. He's sincere. He's really telling the truth." said Angel. Iggy reluctantly believed her.

"Ok, but what's up with Max? What's her problem?" said Ella. Iggy marveled on how Ella had somehow took the words out of his mouth. He was also wondering what was wrong with Nudge. She wouldn't look at him.

Angel concentrated, and the Flock watched her anxiously.

"There's…there's…she doesn't remember us! Or anything… at all! I think that they wiped her memory!" gasped Angel. The Flock gaped in horror. This was almost as bad as Max being dead. She didn't know _anything!_ The Flock would have to teach her everything! What if Max couldn't lead? The Flock would fall to pieces!

"That's just great! Any bright ideas? Anyone?" said Courage, whose voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"I thought not. I was better off alone!" growled Courage as she took off in the air. Iggy nodded at Gazzy, who took off after Courage.

"What do we do now?" whimpered Ella. Iggy put his arm around her shoulders.

"I don't care what _you _do, but _I'm_ going to tell Max everything she's forgotten!" said Nudge in a cold tone that was so un-Nudge-like.

Nudge stormed off to Max. Faint, soft tones could be heard and Max ebbed closer to Nudge with every word. Finally, Nudge led Max inside the house.

"What's her problem?" asked Ella. Iggy shrugged and Angel said nothing.

Angel knew that it was gonna take a long time, if not an eternity for Nudge to accept Iggy and Ella being a couple now.

**Now, Angel, Nudge will soon forget. Ella was made to be Iggy's soul mate, and Nudge will find her soul mate too, in due time. The same will happen to you, later. Gazzy has already found his soul mate, now, Max has to make a decision. Help her make the right one.** said Angel's Voice suddenly.

Angel was relieved to hear that Nudge would find someone too. In fact, she was happy that he would eventually find someone too. Maybe Max was wrong about something. Maybe all whitecoats aren't evil, maybe some whitecoats want to help the Flock and give them each someone special.

Angel ran in the house to tell her the good news, but one thing still nagged in her mind. If Fang was already with Max, what was the point of making Dylan? It wasn't like they didn't love each other. She knew for a fact that they loved each other more than life itself. That was the problem, they seemed to love each other more than they loved the Flock.

But Max being with Dylan was no different than her being with Fang. She would still be caught up with her boyfriend, and not concentrated on the Flock. Max needed someone by her side. Max would die from stress if she didn't have someone to share the burden with her.

At least they knew Fang. The whole Flock had grown up with Fang. Especially Max. From what Angel understood, Fang was the first bird kid that Max had ever met. Max knew Fang like she knew herself and visa versa. That kind of friendship wasn't common, especially with two people like Max and Fang.

There was no_ way_ that Max was gonna trust someone like that again. Dylan was just too nieve on the whole business.

Oh, there was too much drama in the Flock! She would figure al of this out later. Preferably after she had a snack. Angel skipped into the kitchen to reassure Nudge that the perfect person was out in the world, somewhere. She just had to find him.

Gazzy tilted his pure white wings, which were the spitting image of his sister's except almost twice as long.

The wind whistled through his ivory colored feathers. He was about one-hundred feet above Courage. His raptor vision zoomed in on Courage's face. A diamond tear fell from her emerald green eyes. She hastily wiped the droplets away from her face.

A rush of sympathy hit him in the chest like a high kick from an invisible Eraser. Gazzy tucked his wings in, part of a trick that he had mastered over the years.

Gazzy fell from the sky, in an aerodynamic, winged bullet. It took all of his willpower tot to scream like a little kid on his first rollercoaster. The feeling was almost indescribable. 'Amazing', wouldn't even begin to cover it.

Gazzy's blond hair whipped from the breeze as he shot downwards as a gazillion miles an hour. Gazzy grinned as he was just above Courage. Courage must of saw his shadow, because she looked up, and let out an involuntary shriek.

Gazzy's wings shot out, and he stopped, with his high top sneakers hovering just above her beating wings.

See, the trick was unfurling his wings at an angle, so it wouldn't tear his wings our of their sockets.

Courage's face was priceless, but marred with tear streaks. Another tear fell from her eyes and she furiously wiped it away. Her coal black hair waved in the breeze behind her.

"Hey, I was just kidding! I wasn't gonna fall on you!" said Gazzy as he hovered above her. He would have flew next to her, but their wings kind of got in the way.

"I… it wasn't your fault. I shouldn't be crying. You probably think I'm weak now." said Courage in a defeated tone.

"No! You're not weak! You're the strongest person I know! I mean Max was but after Fang left… she fell apart. Kind of like cardboard in the rain!" said Gazzy, in a failed attempt to make Courage smile.

"Loving someone isn't weak. It takes more strength than resisting someone." said Courage. Gazzy was at a loss for words.

"You should probably get back to your family." said Courage as she tried to speed up. Gazzy was just as fast.

"Wait, they're your family too!" said Gazzy.

"It doesn't matter. Without their leader, they're just gonna fall apart." said Courage. Gazzy was irritated now.

"Hey, we're the Flock! We stick together, no matter what! So what if it takes a while for her to remember everything! Iggy'll lead! We're a family! You could be too, come home with me!" said Gazzy. Courage looked at Gazzy doubtfully, despite the motivating speech.

"Iggy's no leader. From what I saw, he hates leading. He won't stand it for too long. Dylan's not made for leading, Max can't lead if she can't remember anything, Angel…well, I'm not too sure about Angel, no offense or anything. Forget about Ella or Nudge! And… wait, Fang's still gone!" said Courage.

"Look, I don't know where Fang is, but I do know that you belong with us. You belong with me…" said Gazzy quietly. They looked at each other, but then busted out laughing. On the plane ride over, they had become quite acquainted with Taylor Swift's hit song.

Gazzy did a perfect imitation of Taylor Swift when he sang, 'You Belong with Me'.

Gazzy smiled, and it was quiet for a moment.

"You really want me in your family?" asked Courage softly.

"I'm sure" said Gazzy. He looked sincere, and Courage smiled.

"Ok, I'll come home." Courage said. Gazzy did a little triple loop-de-loop in mid air.

"If, you teach me some of those cool tricks!" laughed Courage. Gazzy almost outshone the sun with a blinding smile.

"Sure!" he chirped as the two nine year olds flew back to the Martinez house.

After Max became re-acquainted with her mom, she was enveloped in a hug. Angel pulled Nudge aside.

"What do you want? I thought you said that Iggy liked me!" snapped Nudge.

"No, I never said that, I said that he was confused! He was confused, Nudge." said Angel.

"Why didn't you just tell me that he didn't like me, since you know everything!" Nudge hissed.

"I didn't want to hurt you!" said Angel.

"Yeah, how's that working out for ya!" snapped Nudge, who was well near tears again. Angel was silent.

"My Voice told me that there is someone out there waiting for you. You just have to find him." said Angel. Nudge's expression softened, and she wiped a tear away.

"Really?" Nudge asked in a whisper.

"Really. Voices never lie." Angel said. Nudge smiled amongst her angst.

"Thanks Angel. That really helped." Nudge said as she hugged the seven year old.

"I know." said Angel. After all, she could read minds. Then, another thought randomly hit her.

_Where's Fang? _

Iggy and Ella walked in through the back door holding hands, and Angel could tell that Nudge was upset.

The oven dinged and Dr. Martinez rushed to take the gooey chocolate chip cookies out of the oven.

"Chocolate chip cookies! Yum!" said Nudge, trying to lighten the mood. Dr. Martinez smiled like she always did when someone complimented her cooking.

"I want one!" chirped Ella.

"I want four!" Iggy chimed in. Dylan stood silently in the doorway, analyzing the whole scene.

"Leave some for me!" Angel hollered over the noise.

"Chocolate chip cookies…" muttered Max, as if in a hypnotic trance.

"What is that, Sweetheart?" asked Max's mom.

"Swetheart?" Max's eyes were squinted in confusion. Angel tried to make sense out of Max's muddled thoughts, but couldn't. She did remember that 'Sweetheart' was Fang's lovey-dovey (get it, lovey-dovey, oh never mind!) nickname for Max.

"I love cookies!" Max burst out suddenly. All eyes were on Max now. She wasn't supposed to remember anything! There was hope flaming in everyone's hearts now. Except Dyan, this was not good news for him if Max got her memory back.

Maybe Max would regain her memory! The Flock won't fall apart after all!

"Sweetheart…" Max repeated.

"Fang…" Max whimpered.

**Sort of a cliffy, but if I get enough reviews, that will soon change! I hope you guys enjoyed it! I know I sure did!**


	20. Realization

**Hey! You guys, the most terrible thing ever happened. **Girl In Heaven**, the author of Silver Whistle has passed away. Please keep her in your thoughts since this chapter is dedicated to her.**

**Disclaimer: SOOO not in the mood…**

_previously…_

"_I love cookies!" Max burst out suddenly. All eyes were on Max now. She wasn't supposed to remember anything! There was hope flaming in everyone's hearts now. Maybe Max would regain her memory! The Flock won't fall apart after all!_

"_Sweetheart…" Max repeated._

"_Fang…" Max whimpered_

**Normal POV**

"What did you say, Max?" stuttered Nudge.

Max looked extremely lost and confused, and massaged her temples.

"I…I don't know!" Max said softly, as if she was trying not to aggravate a throbbing migraine. Max ran upstairs leaving the Dr. Martinez **(A/N: I'm including Ella in the Flock from this point on. The same goes for Courage.) **and the rest of the Flock in deep thought over what just happened. Well, some of them thought deeply, while others pondered for a moment, then inhaled some of the gooey chocolate chip cookies.

Many mysterious pictures flashed before her eyes, blinding her from her normal vision. Max wildly sprinted to the nearest room and collapsed on the bed.

Another image overpowered her vision. She briefly compared the room that she was currently in to the one pictured in her skull. They were the same. So she remembered this place. It wasn't her room… was it? The black bedspread, slate gray walls, and dark furniture didn't look like anything that she would have in her room, if she ever had a room.

The room was familiar… it just…

Another image temporarily seized her thoughts. Not an image, it was a memory!

The memory started as Max looked at a set of hands and grimy wings wrapped around her. They were her hands, but much smaller. Her wings were the same way. Max's bare feet were small, and she wore shredded white linen pants and a ripped cotton tank top. Not only were her clothes in tatters, but there were bloodstains too.

By bird-kid standards, she judged herself to be roughly three years old. Little Max was contained in a small cage that was stored in a dim, all white room. This memory was so vivid, that she could even smell the stomach churning stench of the antiseptic. Little Max was in the place that the dark clothed boy had called 'the School'.

However, Max was not alone in the room. To her left, caged like she was, was a boy. His hair, soaked with sweat or blood, she knew not, was long and covered his eyes. He had no shirt on, which displayed his extreme malnourishment and countless injuries. The most tragic thing about his appearance was the nightmare black wings that grew out between his shoulder blades.

Not to get anything wrong, but Max loved the boy's wings. They were beautiful. But he probably hated them because they were the wretched things that kept him in the cage and would always prevent him from leading a normal life.

The boy's pants were in the same condition as hers, but believe it or not, had more blood on them than she did. However, though she had never seen the boy before, she somehow knew that he shouldn't be wearing white.

And no, it was not because it was after Labor day and everyone stopped wearing white. The boy just looked… like he didn't belong in white. It was like binding two magnets of opposing sides together… just wrong.

The boy then looked over, and she got a good look at his eyes. They were almost as black as his pupils! But it wasn't creepy, it was exciting, dangerous, attractive, and dare I say handsome?

"Max" he said in an all too familiar voice. She knew him from somewhere and it was driving her insane.

Dylan had followed Max upstairs and into her room. The door opened, and Dylan stood in the doorway.

Max took no notice and stared at the ceiling. She racked her brain, trying to remember, wanting to remember, but she just…couldn't. That boy! That guy dressed in black at the School… she wanted to remember!

"Max, Sweetheart, are you alright?" Dylan asked.

_I'm so glad that I have this chip, otherwise Angel would have read my real thoughts and my cover would have been blown the moment that I first saw them in Africa! _Dylan thought as he walked over to the bed and sat down next to Max.

"I…how can I be alright if I can't remember anything! My past, everything! It's all…gone!" Max said, infuriated, as she flopped on to her stomach and sighed into the pillow.

Wait… she remembered this…room…this smell. This amazing smell. The dark bedcover, the dark furniture and walls… it all seemed so familiar…

"I know this room…"Max said softly as she sat up, glancing around the room.

"Come on, Max. I don't know if your memory will come back or not, but I do know that I will fill in all of the blanks because I…" Dylan trailed off.

_Come on, take the bait!_ Dylan thought.

Max looked at Dylan in his turquoise blue eyes.

"Because you what?" she said softly.

_Got ya!_ Dylan thought triumphantly as he brushed a strand of hair away from her face. Surprisingly, Max didn't shy away.

"Because I love you." Dylan said, looking for any reaction. Max was quiet for a second, then she hugged Dylan fiercely around the neck. Dylan stroked the spot between Max's wings gently, the way that Fang had always done..

"Dylan, I love you too." Max said.

Out of all the fearsome pains in the world, this, by far, had to be the worst. Worse than when he wrote that last letter to Max and left. Worse than when he saw Max die. Worse than when Max lost her memory.

Currently, he was strapped to a freezing, stainless steel operating table, and he was propped up so he could get a clear, HD view of the whitecoats' newest torture.

Not only was Fang strapped to a chair, but naturally he was strapped to a heart monitor too.

The School had also put him on an IV, because he'd stopped eating. They wanted him alive for some reason, but he didn't know or care.

Jeb stood next to the TV, watching along with Fang.

The television showed Fang's room back at the Martinez's house. Max was lying on the bed, unknowingly looking straight at the hidden camera.

Fang was too pained to wonder how long that camera had been in his room, and he probably didn't want to know the answer.

Max was trying to remember her past.

_Come on, Sweetheart, I know you can do it. Remember me, remember yourself, remember the Flock!_ Fang thought as a little bit of hope trickled into his heart.

"Max, Sweetheart, are you alright?" Dylan asked.

_That butthead! How dare he call Max MY nickname! He better get away from her!_ In a tireless attempt, he struggled against his restraints.

"I…how can I be alright if I can't remember anything! My past, everything! It's all…gone!" Max said.

_Yeah, that's right, you tell him! _Fang said in his head.

"I know this room…" Max said softly.

Fang's heart beat a little faster. She was remembering! She would remember him! After all, she did run into his room! She'd remember him, kill Dylan, and break him out of this dump.

I know Fang, the damsel in distress? He'd never live that one down. Especially if Iggy found out.

"Come on, Max. I don't know if your memory will come back or not, but I do know that I will fill in all of the blanks because I…" Dylan trailed off.

Fang involuntarily clenched his jaw. Yeah, he'd fill her head with lies! Who died and gave him the right to make a move on her! Well, he would be dead or worse if Max didn't gather the Flock and break him out.

"Because you what?" Max said softly.

_Oh no…_Fang thought.

"Because I love you." Dylan said. It took all of Fang's willpower not to let his jaw drop.

_That traitorous, two faced, no good, lying son of a… _Fang's insulting thoughts were interrupted.

"Dylan, I love you too." Max said.

Fang's heart stopped right in his chest.

_No…no it couldn't be true! He loved her! He thought…_

_Well you thought wrong, Fang. She's lost her memory now, for good. There's nothing that you can do about it. Face it. She loves another guy. You're just in the past, stuck here._

Now Fang was arguing with himself. Not like he cared.

Dylan hugged Max and rubbed her in between the wings, like he used to do. He was replaced.

Fang sagged his head in defeat.

"You see Fang, Max is happy now. I tried to tell you that Dylan was meant for Max. You have potential, you just need to cooperate with us. There is someone for you, just cooperate with us and…" Jeb started.

Fang was sick. Sick of Jeb and the School and everyone else who weaved the horrendous web of lies that he was hopelessly tangled up in. He didn't want anyone else. Max was everything that he ever needed or wanted. He'd trade his wings for Max to remember him.

Fang was sick of pain. It was all that he had ever known, except when he was eating Iggy's cooking, flying on a wonderful breeze, as free as he could be, or lastly, when he was with Max.

Now all of that was gone. Gone, baby, gone. Fang closed his eyes. He was truly, utterly tired of it all. There was nothing in this world but pain and misfortune. He wanted to leave it all.

Sleep… Fang's consciousness drifted away. He faintly heart a machine beeping one long beep. He was too tired to care.

He was free from pain, but Max was gone. She loved someone else. He was forgotten and would be missed by no one.

Blackness overcame his vision.

The heart monitor flatlined.

"Oh, no…" said Jeb as he fiddled around with the monitor.

_Poor Fang. Seeing Max with someone else was too much for him. He was so crushed he gave up._ Jeb thought somberly. He knew good an well that Dylan didn't really love Max. He was just acting.

Well, if he didn't fix this, there would be no need for any more tests because this one worked too well.

"What happened?" the Director screeched as her stiletto heels click-clacked furiously against the marble tile.

"It was too much for him! Congratulations. The test was a success. Fang loved Max more than he loved life itself." Jeb said flatly as he helplessly tried to revive Fang.

"Don't you be sarcastic with me, you old bat! Bring him back! The testing was not complete! We don't have enough data!" yelled the Director.

"I'm trying!" protested Jeb. He made a split second decision. He pulled a Max and took the shot of adrenaline off of a nearby trey and plunged it into Fang's chest.

**Max POV **

I was laying in my bed, remembering the events of the previous day. The rest of the Flock was asleep, so I was free to think in peace.

Dylan had told me that the dark haired boy that I saw in the room at the School was a traitor. The dark haired guy was so mad at me, that he had captured me and turned me in to the School. The guy was so sick of his miserable life, that he had killed himself.

That seemed like an awful life. The rest of the Flock looked at the table somberly. Dylan was right. He would fill the blanks in my memory up for me. He re-introduced me to the rest of the Flock, and they even filled me in on some old memories.

Dylan was a true and good boyfriend. Not to mention that he was perfect in every other way. What else could a girl ask for? When I hugged him though…we just didn't…fit.

Kind of like trying to put the wrong puzzle pieces together. I must be imagining it. Dylan's perfect.

The door to her room creaked open as Dylan quietly walked in.

"Dylan, there's something that I want to tell you…" I said. I had some more questions about my past, but I also wanted to talk to him about how I really felt.

"First, there's something that I want to tell you." Dylan said as he leaned in closer to me. I leaned in closer too.

However, when we kissed, there wasn't fireworks. It was just a kiss, no special feeling. There was definitely something wrong. Before we went any farther, I pulled away.

"What's wrong?" Dylan asked. I was about to answer when a blinding pain crushed my brain. I curled into the fetal position. The flashing pictures were back, stronger than before.

One by one, they added up.

I remembered kissing someone and feeling those magical fireworks. Kissing that same person more than once, even, and loving it every time. The other person's face became clearer and clearer until I saw him.

That boy in the School. The one that Dylan said was dead. Fang. FANG! I remember his black wings glistening purple in the sunlight and his long-ish hair ruffling in the breeze. I remember Fang's soul piercing obsidian eyes so close to me that I could see tiny gold flecks within them. Every memory clamored into my memory like an invading army, and I welcomed them.

I remembered Fang and I as little kids, three years old, in The School. He.. He had protected me from that whitecoat. We were best friends.

How can I forget my best friend? Not to mention, that I love him. I loved him more than anything or anyone else. How…why would I forget all of that?

All of the emotions finally broke like a flooded dam and tears fell from my eyes. My memory, it was all here.

Dylan was looking curiously at me. Wait Dylan…DYLAN! I was gonna kill him.

"Please, Max. Tell me what's wrong?" he asked. That jerk. He totally took advantage of my memory loss just so he could fake as my boyfriend!

I was just gonna play along…for fun!

"Hold me…" I whispered. I got that from one of the corny romance movies that Nudge forced me to watch.

Dylan wrapped his arms around her.

"This is what you get for toying with my heart, you reject!" I whisper-yelled into his ear as I slammed my fist into him. He was out like a light.

But then, I remembered that Fang was alive! Dylan had lied to me and the Flock! I saw him! He was alive! I… we, as a Flock had to rescue him. I had to tell the Flock! As I walked to the door, something swung around and tripped me.

Dylan.

"How's it feel to be rock bottom now, Max?" Dylan hissed into my ear as he pulled something, a syringe out of his pocket, and injected me with it.

My world faded to black.

**Again, with the unconsciousness. Again, I'm deeply sorry for the Dylan/Max crap, but it was vital. Don't kill me for it, it will all be amended. Review, and I'll update sooner!**


	21. Forgiven

**Hey, I've finally updated.. And I now have OVER 150 REVIEWS! Yipee! Anyways, I'm in a really good mood, and this will probably affect the way the fic turns out, so happy days!**

**Disclaimer: I'm definitely not James Patterson if you haven't figured this out by now so on with the fic!**

_previously…_

"_How's it feel to be rock bottom now, Max?" Dylan hissed into my ear as he pulled something, a syringe out of his pocket, and injected me with it._

_My world faded to black._

"_What happened?" the Director screeched as her stiletto heels click-clacked furiously against the marble tile._

"_It was too much for him! Congratulations. The test was a success. Fang loved Max more than he loved life itself." Jeb said flatly as he helplessly tried to revive Fang._

Normal POV

Max awoke in a daze…and strapped to a steel operating table. Her first conscious inhale burned with the overpowering stench of floor cleaner and antiseptic. She was at none other than the endless white madhouse also known as the School.

Strapped to the same table was Fang. After her endless turmoil, Fang was lying, unconscious, next to her. Fang's ash black hair was matted to his forehead and numerous bruises, cuts, and injection wounds covered his bare arms. His shirt was gone, but she was in no mood for drooling. Max could easily count his ribs.

After everything, they were together once again. Max couldn't decide whether she should adore being close to Fang again, or if she should hate every second of it.

Fang did leave, and she's been through endless pain because of it.

To heck with her pride, she wanted more than anything just to let go and forgive Fang. After all, he left to protect her. She was so sick of not getting what she wanted. She did everything for the Flock, so why couldn't she be happy just once? Fang was what made her happy.

Max leaned over as much as her bound wrists would allow and kissed Fang on the forehead.

His skin was cold beneath her lips. Too cold for a living person. Max snatched his limp wrist and frantically felt for a pulse.

There wasn't one.

_Oh no. No no no no no!_ Max thought, fighting tears.

She was strapped down! She furiously fought the straps that bound her wrists, but failed. She couldn't save Fang, again, tied down! She was invincible, not a magician! She had to escape! Fang couldn't be gone! Not after all that she'd been through! She did it all for him.

Just then, Jeb walked in.

"What did you do, practice acupuncture on him? It looks like it rained pins and needles on him!" shrieked Max.

"I'll admit we did administer a few… shots to him, but we didn't kill him." Jeb said.

"I'm so sick of you're stupid riddles! Just give me a strait answer for once in my life! If you didn't kill him, who did? The tooth fairy?" Max said, on the verge of hysteria.

"Max, are you sure that you wan the answer to that?" Jeb said, looking intensely at Max.

"Of course I want the answer! Whoever did it, I'll rip their intestines out and make them eat it like freaking bloody spaghetti!" Max yelled, her voice becoming shrill.

"Max, he heard you say that you loved Dylan. He saw a monitor video. He died when he saw that. He simply gave up all hope." Jeb said.

Max's hurt, wide eyes and gaping mouth was almost more than Jeb could bear.

"No, no! I didn't mean it! Dylan tricked me! I love him!" Max yelled as she pointed to Fang's battered body. Max tried to get closer to Fang, but the straps around her wrists prevented that. She futilely struggled against the unforgiving restraints.

"Jeb, Jeb let me go! I have to get to him! I have to help him, since all of you bozos can't!" Max growled as the restraints dug into her thin wrists. Tiny droplets of avian-human blood dripped down from Max's chafed wrists to the cold operating table.

"Sorry Max, but we both know that I can't let you go. Besides, Max, I…we tried to revive Fang. It wasn't possible. If we can't revive Fang… I'm sorry Max, but he's gone. It's time that you move on and focus on saving the world." Jeb said.

Max POV

I wanted to let my jaw drop, but I wouldn't give Jeb the satisfaction. I wanted so bad to sock that stupid smile off his face. How could he expect me just to leave Fang as he is and 'focus on saving the world'? That's a bunch of crap! Where on earth did they dig up morons who think that if they kill Fang, that I'll focus on saving the world? Who gave them the right to decide when Fang, me, or anybody dies?

Wait… they didn't kill Fang…I did. Those words just didn't make any sense. I froze. I killed Fang. I know the truth now, all he ever did was love me and back me up when I needed it.

I rejected him, on multiple occasions, I forgot about him, told him that I didn't want to see him again, told the Flock to shun him, stabbed him in the back by kissing Dylan, and now I've killed him.

"You monster! If you loved me, you'd let me go! You're not my father." I spat at Jeb. He looked hurt and turned to leave. Good. I didn't even feel bad. He deserved to be hurt after all that he's done to the Flock and me.

_Enough about Jeb! Focus on Fang!_ I thought fiercely. I gravitated my attention to Fang.

"Fang, I love you! Do you hear me? I love _you_! Don't leave me! Fang, please!" I begged as I gripped Fang's hand.

He's not gone. I love him too much for him to be dead. I don't know what I'll do without him!

'_You have a choice, Maximum. Be sure that it's the right one.'_

That Erasers gravely omen appeared into my head. I dreamt that so long ago. It was all clear to me now. The dream was a foreshadowing of what was to come. I could stay in the world alone always mourning, always thinking about Fang. Or, I could give up, like Fang did. It was so much easier. Who would've thought that Maximum Ride would admit that she's sick of fighting?

Yeah well, living a constant action movie for your whole life tires you out. The only thing that I put up with all of it was knowing that Fang would always have my back. Now… I'm too tired to fight. Fang's not fighting anymore so now I can finally rest.

Or so I thought.

Normal POV

Jeb walked down the hall, trying to block Max's pitiful cries to Fang out of his head. Her cold words had cut him right through the soul.

'_You're not my father.'_

Fang had said something similar to him when he arrived at the School not too long ago.

'_What kind of father are you?'_ Fang had said.

Jeb questioned the answer to that remark. It wasn't his fault that Fang had died. It was the Director's plan to show Fang the video feed. However, Jeb could have stopped it, somehow. Jeb knew that it would completely push Fang off the fragile sliver of life that he was clinging on to.

Jeb tried the adrenaline shot, but it obviously didn't work. Jeb still could hear Max begging Fang to return to her, and Jeb was all the way at the other end of the hallway.

Jeb blocked out Max's frantic cries. He couldn't show weakness. He had taught Max the same thing. That was how life worked. No one lives happily ever, that was just how life worked.

Jeb once thought that he had taught Max to not let emotions control her, but she had fallen apart multiple times since Fang left.

_Loving someone isn't weakness._ one part of Jeb's brain said.

_Yeah, when love causes you to fall apart, it becomes one!_ Jeb shot back. Great, now he was arguing with himself.

Jeb was temporarily interrupted from his musings by Dylan, who nodded in greeting, then strode down the hall and walked into the room where Max was being kept. Max's pleas instantly ceased.

Max POV

"What do you want, you good-for-nothing-traitor! I spat as Dylan walked forwards, and closed the door behind him. The lock on the door snapped into place. She was trapped.

"I must've been good for something, since you chose me over him." Dylan smirked as he gestured to Fang.

"A drunken sewer rat would choose anybody over you!" I spat. Hey, my comebacks weren't at their best at the moment.

"Apparently not." Dylan retorted.

"It is, because Fang is more than you could ever be. He's dead and it's your fault! You tricked me and lied to me! I.. the Flock trusted you! We thought that you were one of us! But now I know that you're one of the scum sucking bottom feeders that works here." I sneered.

"My dear Max, I don't work here. I was born into the profession. You are too, like it or not. It's time that you met my mother, or wait… you've already been acquainted." Dylan said coolly as the door handle opened from the outside.

There, in all her hideous, stiletto wearing evil, was none other than the Director.

Dylan's mom is the…Director? Well, that explains a lot. I refused to give either of them the satisfaction of seeing me shocked, not even for a moment.

"Well now, Maximum. You've passed the test with flying colors!" The Director said with as much glee as someone who's just won the lottery.

"There's not enough color in this dump to fill a thimble, and what the heck are you talking about? By the way, long time, no see tortoise face." I said with false enthusiasm.

The Director's smile faded like those tacky spray tans that I saw in Las Vegas.

"Why, the test of your dedication to you're mate. Without a doubt, you two are fully dedicated to each other. Unfortunately…Fang was a little too dedicated to you. We were disappointed. We had such hopes for the two of you." The Director said as if she was evaluating some stupid soap opera.

"No matter, I'll leave of the rest of our experimentation to Dylan." The Director said smugly as her hopelessly high heels clopped out the door.

Dylan grinned as he approached closer to me. I prepared myself for a large amount of pain, and I would ignore it all. Before Dylan got any closer, I squeezed Fang's cold hand. I wished with every fiber in my genetically enhanced body that Fang would squeeze back, and reassure me with his glittering obsidian eyes.

_Pain is just a message._

Dylan was almost to the operating table, but strangely, he had no torture devices in his twisted evil clutches.

_Pain is just a message._

Dylan was probably gonna beat me up, or pull some nasty shot or knife out of his pocket.

_Pain is just a message._

What if Dylan did worse? He was capable of much worse. I'm not the damsel in distress type, but I needed someone to help me, like now!

_Pain is just a…_

My mental chanting was interrupted by a pressure in my hand.

_Here it comes, pain is just a message! Ignore! Ignore!_ _Wait…Dylan's on my left side, something touched my right side. That's impossible, the only thing on my right side is.. FANG!_

I turned my head so fast, that my neck burned. Fang had tightened his grip on me, but was it some funky post-death twitch?

I reluctantly turned my attention back towards the psycho-twisted-good-for-nothing-traitor. Aka Dylan.

Before I looked at Dylan again, Fang had winked at me for a brief moment, then resumed 'dying'. Fang was alive! The Director lied! I tried not to squeal like Nudge when she went shopping with Ella for the first time.

"So, was the whole bird kid charade a lie too? Or did you're loving mother graft your DNA to avian DNA?" I asked trying to buy time. Fang was so smart. He was listening to the whole situation, and was playing dead! In reality, Fang was slowly un strapping my wrists from their bounds.

"No. I had the latest personal wing technology. No bird-kid DNA needed." Dylan said smugly. The poor sap thought that he was so smart. He was a regular idiot when compared to how wickedly awesome me and Fang's plan was.

"But how did you look so strong when fighting you're old buddy, Dr. Häagen-Dazs?" I asked. Fang was finished un-strapping my arm, and now I freed his arm.

"Easy. The School came up with some temporary muscle enhancer." Dylan said in a cocky tone..

"One more thing, how did you fool Angel into believing that you were some perfect bird kid when you were really…that." I gestured to Dylan's sickeningly perfect body. Pretty boy perfect is so overrated. Now mysterious, tall, dark, and ruggedly handsome…that was more my speed. "Was Angel in on this the whole time?"

"Actually, Angel didn't know a thing. I have a chip temporarily implanted in my skull that masks my real thoughts and replaces them with 'good' thoughts. Came in handy around that bratty mind reader." Dylan said coolly.

Dylan leaned in closer, until he was right up in my face. I acted a little bit frightened, just to take his attention away from Fang's now freed left hand.

"The chip made any nosy little mind readers believe that I loved you." Dylan said, then he cackled. "Not likely! Why would anyone love a freak like you?"

That really ticked Fang off, because Fang's fist soared over me, and slugged Dylan across the face. I'll admit, it was a great hit, it broke Dylan's perfect little nose and everything! And that was with Fang's _left_ hand _while_ he was strapped from a table and almost starved to death.

Dylan shakily sank to the floor.

"I love her, And she's not a freak!" Fang growled as his arm reached over and freed his other arm.

I was in too much shock to free my other hand. Luckily, Fang freed it for me. Fang loves me? After all that I said and did to him, after all I put him through, he still…loves me? My pride sank like a lead balloon, because after Fang freed me, I kissed him square on the lips.

His eyes widened for a second in shock, and I smirked.

"You really forgive me?" Fang said in that tone that I missed more than the light of day.

"Here's the deal, I forgive you if you forgive me." I whispered as I made the beautiful mistake of looking into his depthless eyes.

"Deal." Fang murmured. He leaned in for one last kiss, but was so rudely interrupted by a groan from Dylan.

"We can't just leave him here, he'll snitch to his sweet old mother." I sighed.

Then, I had a brilliant idea. I looked over at Fang, my eyes sparkling with amusement. Fang was already looking at me, and by the look in his eyes, we had the same idea.

We dragged Dylan to the operating table, and strapped him down on it. We gagged his mouth with the hem of my gray T-shirt to keep him quiet. I grabbed his all access key card out of Dylan's pocket.

Perfect, now Fang and I had an all access pass to our favorite place, the School. That was sarcasm, for those of you who didn't catch it. I slid the keycard in the lock, and the door clicked open. Fang shut the door behind him.

I bolted to the exit. I knew where that was because those little glowing exit signs marked the way. Huh. Who knew that a top secret 'inescapable' torture faculty used exit signs like they have in elementary schools.

Fang grabbed my arm and stopped me in my tracks.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" I hissed. "There's no time for a rescue mission today! We have to get out of here!"

"Come on. There's something that we need to do." Fang said before he led me in the opposite direction. He pulled me over to a door, which I unlocked with the keycard.

My mouth dropped open when the door creaked open. I couldn't find any words to say.

**Ok, I know. I hate cliffys too. Not to worry! I'll update asap! I swear! That is, if I get any reviews…**


	22. Choices

**Hey again! To make up for the stunning lack of Fax in previous chapters, I'm gonna cram as much of it as I can without making the ending being sappy. Does anyone have any suggestions, because I'll be happy to hear them! PM me or tell me in a review, it doesn't really matter, as long as you give me some ideas for Fax!**

**Disclaimer: Max Ride+ Me as the author = NOT IN THIS LIFETIME!**

_Previously…_

"_What the heck do you think you're doing?" I hissed. "There's no time for a rescue mission today! We have to get out of here!"_

"_Come on. There's something that we need to do." Fang said before he led me in the opposite direction. He pulled me over to a door, which I unlocked with the keycard._

_My mouth dropped open when the door creaked open. I couldn't find any words to say._

Fang POV

The look on Max's face was priceless. Seriously, if I had a camera, I'd snap a picture and use it as blackmail against her for eternity. Max did have a right to be speechless, though.

"Fang, what is this?" Max asked in bewilderment.

"The thing that gives us our expiration dates." I said.

Max glanced at the monstrosity of a machine. She saw the live video of the Flock. They were flying, practicing battle formation. She now understood that not only could the School spy on us, but they could simply kill us with the touch of a button.

Max was overwhelmed with the wrong-ness of it all, but we don't have all day.

"Max!" I snapped. She blinked her eyes as if waking from a dream.

"What now? If we destroy this thing, we don't know if it'll automatically kill us or bring in an army of Erasers! We just can't take that chance." Max said.

" Would you rather have the whitecoats spying on us and deciding our lives out for us then?" I said. Max looked defeated.

"I just…" Max trailed off, but she might as well have finished her sentence. I already knew what she was gonna say. She didn't want to be responsible for the death of the Flock if this machine went haywire and killed us all.

I picked up a spare IV rack that are used to hold those IV drip bags.

"It's now or never. I'd rather die free than having my life controlled by these freaks." I said. Max looked at me, then she too grabbed an IV stand.

Then, Max's beautiful chocolate brown eyes met mine, and I swore that if this stupid thing killed me in a minute, she'll be the last thing I see.

Then, I used my awesome bird-kid strength to spear the IV stand through the computer. Any readers reading this right now, don't try this at home, seriously.

One after one, we destroyed each and every computer until I finally jabbed my own computer. Max did the same thing to her computer without hesitation.

Huh. We weren't dead. For once in our short, unlucky lives, something actually went right. Go figure.

Nothing could describe how great it felt to know that we were finally free! Well, as free as runaway science 'projects' could be.

Now if the School wanted us gone, they'd have to do it the hard way! I'm fine with that. I'd always planned to go down fighting anyways.

Max looked over at me, beaming. Man, I missed her so much. I shot her one of my rare, genuine grins. She seemed a little startled, but in a good way. What can I say, I'm not big on emotions.

That's when the alarms started blaring. Max and I bolted out the door and followed the convenient red exit signs.

Red strobe lights flashed and the ear piercing siren blared. Hello, bird kids have sensitive ears, turn the volume down on the sirens already!

A few halls behind us, despite the screeching alarms, I heard the light footsteps of whitecoats and the heavy footfalls of Erasers in combat boots.

Then an Eraser raced out of the door in front of us. He was blocking our only escape route. He ginned a wolfish grin, as if to gloat over the fact that he'd trapped us. In his lupine dreams!

Max roundhouse kicked the Eraser on the side of the head and he was down for the count.

Curious, I stopped the door that the Eraser had emerged from and pulled it open. The sounds of whimpering, crying, and just plain misery reached our ears.

Max POV

I expected Fang to say 'Forget about them, we can't save them all.' like he did last time I attempted a jailbreak back at the Institute in New York. That seemed like eons ago.

I was surprised to see a look in Fang's eyes that was urging me to hurry up and free them. I nodded at Fang and he stood guard outside of the door. Dang, if that isn't telepathy, I don't know what is.

The mutants' cries immediately quieted.

"It's ok, guys. We're getting out of here!" I announced as I spread my wings apart to show them that I was one of them.

The mutants murmured in excitement and confusion. I rapidly clicked each of the dog crates open. One by one, the mutants crawled out of their cages. Whoa, there was a lot of them.

"Ok, guys. Follow me." I ordered. The mutants hustled after me as I led them out of the door. I saw Fang holding out against four Erasers at once, and the floor was littered with unconscious whitecoats.

More and more Erasers ran in and attacked Fang. One Eraser slipped past Fang, and came towards me and the kids. I snarled and slugged him. He was down.

The kids looked up at me with frightened eyes. Fang took hit after hit, but they didn't seem to faze him. Fang snarled with such a ferocity, that it scared me. Fang immediately snapped out his wings, which hit two Erasers on the back of the head, and they were catching Z's on the white marble floor.

That was a cool move, I had to admit. I was gonna try it some time. Fang was being swarmed with Erasers. I had to help him. I just couldn't loose him. Not again. I needed to help him, then we could go home.

I looked desperately at the small mutants, well, mostly small. There was one kid who appeared to be twelve years old. Even for twelve, he was pretty tall.

"I'll lead them out. You go help him." the boy said as he gestured to Fang, who had a swelling eye. Oh, he was gonna have a nasty shiner tomorrow. That is, if we ever escaped this madhouse.

"Thank you! Just follow the red exit signs and get as far away from here as possible. Avoid roads, and try to head east. We'll find you as soon as we can!" I said quickly.

I was going to get out of here alive, with Fang. I had to now. I had to guide these kids home, and I couldn't do it without my right hand man/wingman/best friend/_soul-mate_.

"GO!" I shouted at the kids. The older boy nodded and led the young mutants behind him.

I raced off to help Fang. I wasn't going to die. And Fang wasn't going to die either. All of these blasted Erasers will wish they were dead after messing with me.

**Shorter than usual, but I got so many nice reviews, that I just had to update! By the way, thank you guys so much! You reviewers/subscribers are the reason that I write and I'm too happy to put into words. You guys are fantabulous! **


	23. Freedom

**Yay! I got, like a TON of reviews! I thank ALL who reviewed/ subscribed! We're reaching the end o this fic. I know, It's hard for me too. This is not the last chapter, I've got two or maybe three chapters left, really depending on how long this chapter is gonna be.**

**Disclaimer: I'm a GIRL! So there, I'm not James Patterson… it still wierds me out that someone as old as James Patterson can come up with someone as hot as Fang…**

_Previously…_

_I was going to get out of here alive, with Fang. I had to now. I had to guide these kids home, and I couldn't do it without my right hand man/wingman/best friend/soul-mate. _

"_GO!" I shouted at the kids. The older boy nodded and led the young mutants behind him._

_I raced off to help Fang. I wasn't going to die. And Fang wasn't going to die either. All of these blasted Erasers will wish they were dead after messing with me._

Normal POV

Max tapped an Eraser on it's broad shoulder. The idiot turned around and Max's fist slammed in contact with the Eraser's face. The Eraser whimpered like a young puppy before going down.

Max beat and battered her was through the horde of Erasers until she finally was fighting alongside Fang.

"You're supposed to be getting those kids out of here!" Fang ground out as he clobbered an Eraser.

"They're fine! We're getting out of here together or not at all!" Max said. Fang looked over at Max, with his dark eyes sparkling. That was his mistake.

An Eraser clawed him across the face. Blood poured from the wounds and flooded into his eyes. Fang faced the pain in silence, but bared his teeth in a snarl that put every one of those Erasers to shame.

Max's vision went red with rage, while Fang's vision was red from blood. Max viciously attacked the Erasers, purposefully trying to kill every one of them. Usually, Max avoided killing anything, well, except for bugs. Now, Max's mercy had run out and was killing every Eraser within her reach.

Fang had his eyes tightly shut, trying to keep more blood from invading his eyes. Fang tried to channel his inner Iggy and use his raptor hearing to see where to throw his punches. It was hard, because Fang was used to relying on his vision when fighting. Iggy had always made fighting blindly so easy looking.

Fang still managed to KO a few Erasers, but not without receiving a few kicks and punches himself.

Max stood next to Fang once again.

"Fang, let's beat it before another wave of Erasers shows up. Come on, I'll show you the way out." Max said as she grabbed his hand.

They waded their way through the dead and unconscious bodies until their bare feet felt the cold, un-bloodied marble tile. Max had wished that the School had let them keep their combat boots but _no_, everything had to be either white or bare at this evil nuthouse.

Max raced down the hallways while Fang gripped on to Max's hand. Fang hated being led around like a lost child, but there was really nothing he could do about that. Any time that he tried to open his eyes, more blood cascaded into his eyes and blinded him.

Max followed the exit signs and finally saw the exit at the end of a long hallway. Once again, she heard pursuers racing after her.

Almost there…

Of course, someone bolted out of the door in front of her. Only this time it wasn't an Eraser. It was Jeb.

Max was gonna knock his traitorous lights out, but Jeb signaled her to wait. Like she cared what he said. Max reared her hand back and readied to punch him. She was gonna enjoy this.

"Max wait, I have something I want to give you." Jeb said. Max faltered, she didn't trust Jeb. At all. But something in his voice told her to stop.

"Don't trust him." Fang growled. Max totally agreed with Fang and prepared to put Jeb down for a powernap.

"Max," Jeb said totally ignoring Fang. "I know that you don't trust me. You have every right not to. I… I've been a terrible father. I've tried to tell myself that it was all for the better, but I was only lying. Here. I know that this will never make up for what I've done, but it's a start." Jeb said as he handed Max a disk.

Max was at a loss for words.

"Sorry to break up this sappy father/daughter scene, but Max, we've gotta get outta here!" Fang said. Max scowled at Fang for the father/daughter affiliation but took off and didn't even look back. However, she did shove the disk into her pocket and hoped that it survived the trip home. She hoped that _she_ survived the trip home.

Now was not time for weakness, the old tough Max was back and better than ever. Max shoved through the double doors and Fang followed her lead.

"Up and away on three." Max ordered. Fang nodded.

"One." they said in unison as they took off into the clear blue sky. Max and Fang were hundreds of feet above the ground, so Max could keep a lookout for the young mutants.

Max guided Fang, who flew below her silently. His pure black wings were a sight that she had missed almost as much as she missed his voice.

"So." said Fang breaking the silence. "We're alive."

"No, we're dead and this is bird kid heaven." Max said sarcastically. Max could pick up the ghost of a smile on Fang's face.

"That does explain why you're here with me, Angel." Fang said.

Max let her wing 'accidentally' bump Fang's. Fang dropped a few feet before swooping back up and 'accidentally' knocking Max off balance before dropping back down.

"So that's how you want to play it?" Max said as she fell down and lightly kicked Fang on the back of the head. Max used her sonic flying ability and shot ahead.

The bleeding on Fang's face had almost completely stopped, thanks to his bird kid healing. Just another benefit of being a mutant freak. Maybe Dr. Haagen Daaz's DNA cocktail that had been forced into Fang's blood had affected not only his invisibility, but his healing too.

Fang warily opened his eyes to see Max about thirty yards ahead of him.

_You want to use your powers now, huh?_ smirked Fang. Fang closed his eyes and pretended to be blind.

"Max? Where are you?" Fang said. 'Suddenly' his wing's 'froze' and Fang dropped out of the sky like a rock.

Max, who turned around to look at Fang, saw Fang drop out of the sky. She still thought that he couldn't see and that something was wrong.

"Fang? Fang!" Max screamed as she dived down. Fang was gone. She couldn't see him at all.

"Fang, Where are you?" Max screamed.

_Oh no. No. I just got him beck! We were free! We were so close to home! He can't be gone! We fought so hard! WHY CAN'T ANYTHING GO RIGHT?_ Max thought furiously.

Fang, who was watching Max's reaction invisibly right next to her saw a tear drop from her chocolate brown eyes. Ok, prank's over.

"Max, it's alright. I'll always be with you, even when you can't see me." Fang said, invisibly.

"Great, now I'm being haunted by Fang's ghost." Max said as another tear dropped from her eye. Fang wiped the tear away and turned visible once again.

"You… you were… I THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE DEAD AND IT WAS MY FAULT, STUPID!" Max yelled as she slugged Fang in the arm. Ouch, that was gonna leave a bruise. Max obviously didn't know that Fang could fully disappear now.

" I thought that you were gone!" Max said softer than before. Much to Fang's surprise, Max kissed him passionately. It felt like fireworks spread throughout his body, but in a good way. Max thought that this was _much_ better than eating a whole batch of her mother's cookies.

When they broke apart, They looked deeply in each other's eyes.

"Don't scare me like that." Max whispered as she hugged him. They were thrown off balance for a second, because it was kind of hard to hug while flying. However, they synchronized their wing beats, and they stayed within each other's embraces.

"I won't, I promise. I won't leave you again." Fang said in Max's ear, which sent tingles down her spine and caused goosebumps of pleasure to appear on her arms.

"Do you mean it this time? The last time that you said that, you broke it. Do you really want to lie to me again?" Max asked as she slightly pulled out of Fang's grasp so she could look at his dark, beautiful eyes.

"I swear Max. I won't go again. I couldn't if I tried." Fang said with a strait face. They couldn't help it, they busted out laughing. What Fang just said reminded them of that song "Don't Go Breaking my Heart" from a jillion years ago.

"Seriously?" Max said after they were done laughing.

"Serious as a heart attack." Fang said. Max tried to scowl at Fang. He knew that she hated that saying, but she couldn't bring herself to be mad at him. She was too wrapped up in that happy, pleasure filled feeling that she used to try to avoid. Fang was with her now. She was with Fang. Nothing could split them apart.

Well, except for the rapidly approaching flying figures.

**Yes, I know, Cliffy. I hate cliff's myself, but I really have to go. I promise to update again before next weekend! Tell me in a review on how much you liked the Fax! I sure loved writing it! :D **

**Please tell me if they sounded too OOC. I, for one, didn't think that they did. Freaking Max out just sounds like a little prank that Fang would pull on Max when the Flock wasn't around. **

**That's just my opinion, now I want to hear yours! Hearing your opinion is the soul reason that I got a fan fiction account, so PLEASE REVIEW!**


	24. What's Lost is Found

**Hey! Thank you guys so much for the multitude of reviews! Sorry that it took so long for me to post this, but I wanted it to be a perfect ending, so I revised it a lot before I posted it! :D Well anyways, this is the last chapter… :'( **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, I never had, and if you've believed otherwise… wow…**

_Previously…_

_Fang was with her now. She was with Fang. Nothing could split them apart._

_Well, except for the rapidly approaching flying figures._

Max POV

As it turns out, those 'approaching figures' were actually the Flock, coming to look for us. They figured that Dylan was a traitor and that he kidnapped me and took me to the School. The Flock was gonna raid the School and save me!

Not to sound conceited or anything, but I'm totally glad that they would risk their lives to save me. I partially told them off. I told them that it was stupid and dangerous to risk their lives to invade the School just to save me, but it was kinda hard to be mad at them.

Then Iggy pointed out that I stupidly risked my life for people all the time, like when I saved Ella from that gang and got shot in the process, and when I took part of the Flock to rescue Angel from the School.

I opened my mouth, then closed it again. For once, Iggy had a point.

"Shut up. That was different." I mumbled. Fang grinned, yes, actual grinnage, from Mr. emotionless-brick-wall himself. This day just couldn't get any weirder. From Fang and I destroying the expiration date computer things, Fang and I strapping Dylan down for an 'experiment', Fang ad I kicking Eraser butt, Fang playing dead, twice, then the little escapee mutants… Oh my gosh!

I had totally forgotten about the runaway little mutants! My shocked/frantic expression must have been traceable on my face, because Fang flew closer to me, if possible.

"Max, what's wrong?" Fang asked. I looked into his endless pools of glassy black, searching for any emotion. Worry, fear, and…love… or maybe passion flickered through those beautiful, onyx eyes that I adore before he once again became emotionless.

"Those little kids… I can't believe that I forgot about them! We have to find them!" I said.

_Max, see? This is what I warned you about. All that you think about is Fang. Those poor kids could be dead! All because you aren't fit to be leader. Max, people's lives are at stake. Do you really want people to die because you were to stubborn to give up leadership. _

_It's alright for you to be in love. I've never seen you so happy. You and Fang will protect each other, and one day have kids! I'll be an aunt!_

I felt blood rush up to my cheeks after that comment.

_But that's the problem. You and Fang would let the rest of us, even the whole world, die just to save each other . I can't risk that. There's no one there for me, so let me be the leader. I'm ready! When the time comes and someone comes for me, we could make our own flocks! We could spit up, and make our own Flocks! Then, we could meet somewhere every year, like a family reunion!_

_So please, you've had your time as the leader. Now it's time to give up leadership._

Angel. Angel was saying all of this. My hands were shaking involuntarily. I had to watch it with the shaking, otherwise my wings could shake, then I fall.

She was right. I couldn't risk it. I knew that Fang and I would sacrifice the world for each other. Why does that have to be a bad thing?

I acted like I didn't hear Angel.

"Come on guys, we've got some escapees to find." I said as I used my sonic speed to jet out of there. I didn't want the Flock to see disobedient tears fall from my eyes. I needed time to get a hold of myself.

Amazingly, I managed to keep tears from escaping, and I locked my emotions away. Finally, the good old tough Max was back and here to stay.

As I scoured the ground with my raptor vision, I couldn't help but glance back at the small silhouettes of my Flock trying to catch up with me.

One silhouette in particular was gaining on me faster than the others. However, the shape remained dark even though it was approaching. Fang.

I couldn't hide Angel's words from him, but I could sure try. I slowed down so that Fang could catch up with me. Fang tried to hide it, but I knew that he was tired. After all, he only came back from the dead a few hours ago.

I smirked at him.

"Try to keep up, Fang. Jeez, you really need to lay off the junk food." I said. It only took me another second to realize that he hadn't eaten junk food, let alone any food in days.

"Oh, wow, I'm sorry, I didn't…" I trailed off.

"It's fine. Hey, what was wrong with you back there?" Fang said, with his black hair flaming around his dark eyes. His wings beat in perfect sync with mine. Gosh, I missed him so much.

"I…um…" I mumbled. Fang's eyes bored through me. My willpower crumbled. I couldn't lie to Fang.

" I…we can't do this. I have to take care of the Flock. If anything, these past few weeks have proved that we can't protect the Flock. Not when we're together. But I can't live without you. It took an eight year old mind reader to point that out. We need to protect the Flock, but I want to be with you." I said, my voice dropping to a whisper.

"I don't know what to do, Fang." I said so quietly, that I barely heard it myself.

" Easy. You'll lead, because you were born to lead us, and I'll always be there for you, because that's what I was born to do. We'll look out for the rest of the Flock, and they will look out for each other, because that's what flock's do. And Angel can deal with it." Fang said. He let one emotion through his emotionless eyes, love.

At that moment, I was more happy that I believed to be possible. I know, I used to hate all emotions, I've become to like happiness, because I'm always happy when I'm around Fang.

I couldn't help but kiss him right there, thousands of feet above the ground. Fang was caught off guard for a moment, and we almost dropped like rocks.

However, I was just too full of bliss to care.

"Um, cool it guys. There are kids present." Iggy said. Fang and I reluctantly broke apart.

"Oh, yeah. Angel has heard WAY worse stuff in your sick head, so shut up." I snapped. Fang smirked, but it's totally true and not even funny. I've had Angel come to me and ask what some words that ten year olds, let alone seven year olds should never hear. Yeah, I totally kicked Iggy's butt for that on multiple occasions.

"Yeah, we have to find those kids! What if they got recaptured! Or got lost! What if the government finds them and pulls their wings off or puts them in a zoo! *gasp* What if…" Ella covered Nudge's mouth. Seriously, what happened to the endless optimism?

"Ok, let's split up. Gazzy and Courage, you guys go north and do a two mile sweep. They couldn't have gotten far. Ella and…" Angel started to order. If she keeps this up, _I'll_ pull her wings out! Leading is my thing and I can lead pretty well by myself. I can lead with Fang way better.

I cut her off.

"Ok, I told the kids to go East. The boy that was leading them was a bird kid, and somehow, he spoke good English, so I'm assuming that he knows which way East is. Iggy, Ella, and Nudge, go East and look for them. They didn't go very far. Gazzy, Courage, and Angel, you guys will go Southeast and look, and Fang and I will go Northeast." I said. Wow, I'm starting to sound like a bossy version of Nudge.

The Flock obeyed and Angel gave me an evil glare that a seven year old shouldn't be able to do. I rolled my eyes and smirked at her in return. That girl was really starting to scare me.

Fang's callused hand took hold of my hand. A warm feeling spread through my body as Fang looked at me reassuringly.

It didn't take long to find the group. Iggy found them and set off a homemade flare to signal where he was. We led the mutants home, although it took two days. Again, not every mutant can fly. They should, but that's just my opinion.

Anyways, mom arranged for the mutants to be brought to the special, good school and learn to be normal kids. We went with them, just to make sure that the kids got there safely.

Surprisingly, Nudge isn't upset over Iggy anymore. In fact, she's totally moved on. That boy that Fang and I rescued with the other mutant kids has totally captured all of Nudge's conversation. He isn't even fazed by Nudge's constant talking. He actually listens to it all.

The boy's name is Talon.

"Why are you called that? It kinda sounds like Fang, except it's not. A talon is like, a fang for a bird's foot." Nudge said. Huh. Maybe she's cutting down on the chatter.

Talon held out his hand. Thick, sharp claws grew from his fingertips. Well, they weren't claws. They were talons.

For once, Nudge was speechless. Talon smiled.

"You told me that you guys are 2% bird. Well, the whitecoats wanted to se how much bird DNA they could graft to a human. Apparently, 5% is as far as they could go. I'm 5% bird." Talon said in an accent… he's always had an accent. I've heard accents like that before…British! He has a British accent!

"How did a British bird kid wind up in a School, in a desert, in America?" Nudge asked, regaining her composure.

"The School did an exchange with a School in England about a year ago. In England, they taught me how to read, talk, write and stuff. They didn't teach me how to fly though." Talon said.

"Oh! I can teach you how to fly! I know all kinds of tricks! We stayed in a hawks cave once and they showed us how to do a ton of cool tricks. One is…" After that, Nudge continued jabbering and Talon listened to her.

We arrived at that school, the good one, and the people seemed really nice. Of course, I didn't trust them, but mom did, so I acted like I was ok with it.

Angel and Nudge hugged and visited with the mutants from Fang's old Flock. I mean, the kids appeared to be ok. They weren't like robots or brainwashed or anything, so I guess that this place was safe.

Anyways, after about an hour, we left. We rode the bus, because I we were to tired to fly. Hey, I'm not lazy, alright!

Anyways, Gazzy's head was leaned against the bus window, and he was lightly snoring. Courage was sleeping with her head on Gazzy's shoulder. Yeah, it was cute. A total Kodak moment.

Talon and Nudge were drawing pictures on Iggy and Ella's faces with a sharpie. Man, they were so in for it when Iggy and Ella woke up. What, did you think that Iggy and Ella would actually let Nudge and Talon draw on them? Yeah, right!

Anyways, Fang was silently sleeping. His arm was still wrapped around me protectively, he was still guarding me, even in his sleep. Gosh, he is perfect.

I tried to ignore Angel's steely cold glare that was aimed at Fang and me. She still wasn't dropping the whole wannabe leader thing. She wasn't leading my Flock. She could either deal either it, or get out of here.

Instead of worrying about the Angel problem, I focused on the dark mutant sleeping next to me. His onyx hair was ruffled in that way that I loved so much.

Scenery shrouded in twilight passed by. I curled up next to him. Then, I realized something. When Dylan hugged me, I thought that he didn't fit, like when someone tries to cram the wrong puzzle pieces together.

Here, in the temporary safety of a moving Lynx bus, Fang fit right next to me perfectly. Right then, everything in my life clicked into place. As I closed my eyes, the bus hit a bump, and Fang tightened his grip around me.

I leaned my head against his shoulder, and could relax for the first time in my life. Through trials and death, Fang was my missing piece, and now that he's here with me, nothing can stop us.

_**The**__**End!**_

**So, finally. We have reached the end of the fic! Ok, I'm thinking about writing a sequel, but I have a few short stories that I'd love to post before I start on something big again. Anyways, tell me if the sequel is worth posting. Here is the summary. **

**It's been a year since Fang has returned to the Flock, and Fang and Max are as strong as ever. But, when things take an unexpected turn, and Angel's thoughts are growing darker, something terrible looms in the distance for the Flock. **

**Dylan and the School return with a fiery need for revenge. All of my OC's are here! Things heat up between Fang and Max, and there are fights, breakups, Eraser attacks and… babies? **

**Also, Max will finally find out what is on that mysterious disk that Jeb gave her! Here's a hint, it will forever change the way that Max sees Fang forever!**

**This adventure is more drama, action, and romance packed than the fic before it!**

**Please, this is the last chapter! Tell me your thoughts, opinions, and some plot twists for the sequel if you think that there should be a sequel. REVIEW!**


	25. Sequel

**Hey! This is JUST AN AUTHORS NOTE, but if you haven't noticed yet, THE SEQUEL IS UP! It's called Assembling the Pieces'. Go to my profile, find it, and read it, because I'm posting the last chapter, like now!**


End file.
